particular attitude may convey to the transracial adoptee a disrespect or dislike for African Americans, which may cause identity confusion or self-hate that is difficult to resolve, (p. 439)
Thus parents need to not only be sensitive to how racism plays out in society generally, but to their own stereotypes and prejudices that may affect their transracially adopted child.
Despite potential problems with the formation of racial identity, there is much empirical support for transracial adoption. However, research does suggest that transracially adopted children do better when they are able to develop positive racial identities and that adoptive parents may have an important role to play in assisting their children with this task.
Attachment in adopted children seems to be a complicated process where the histories of the adoptive parents as well as the histories of the adoptive children meet and impact on one another.
Research has highlighted several key issues in this regard. Research has consistently shown that the age of the child at adoption is a key factor in predicting whether or not children will develop secure attachments with their adoptive parents (Howe, 2001; Juffer & Rosenboom, 1997; Singer et. al., 1985). The consensus seems to be that children adopted before the age of 6 months are much more likely to develop secure attachments with adoptive mothers than children who are adopted at a later age. In fact, Juffer and Rosenbloom's (1997) research indicated that under the age of six months, the age of the child does not seem to affect attachment. In these cases,
children seem to be able to re-attach to their adoptive mothers and mothers seem to be able to compensate for any early deprivation experienced by the child (Juffer & Rosenboom, 1997).
Thus, Juffer and Rosenboom conclude that "adoption placement per se, without the cumulative effects of understimulation and lack of personal affection that older placed children often experience in institutions, does not inevitably lead to a disturbed parent-infant relationship"
(1997, p. 93). Howe (2001) conducted research into the types of relationships that adult adopted children who had been reunited with their birth mothers experienced with both their adopted mothers and their birth mothers. He found that those adults who were adopted at a young age were more likely to keep in contact with both birth and adopted mothers, whilst those adults who were adopted at an older age were more likely to have lost contact with both their adopted and their birth mothers. Howe concluded that "an early placement appears to promote a secure attachment to the adoptive mother, providing a secure base from which to explore relationships, including that with the birth mother" (2001, p. 232).
Singer et. al. (1985) suggest that the transracially adopted children appeared to have greater difficulty establishing secure attachments with their birth mothers than children who had been adopted inracially. They speculated that the most likely cause of this was that mothers with children of a different race to themselves experienced more anxiety and went through a longer period of adjustment than mothers of adopted children who displayed a greater physical resemblance to themselves. There were several reasons for this. Firstly, new parents of
transracially adopted infants may have lacked confidence about their ability to raise a child of a different race to themselves. This lack in confidence may result in greater anxiety with their
child, extending the period of attachment with their infant. Secondly, it was speculated that parents of transracially adopted children may experience less social support than other parents, and that this may have an impact on attachment. Thus, they argue that "decreased support would then be expected to undermine the parent-child socioemotional relationship" (Singer et. al., 1985, p. 1549). Singer et. al. (1985) suggested that this is a period of adjustment that does eventually normalise, reasoning that the research on the adjustment of older transracially adopted children suggests that these children are as well adjusted as inracially adopted children. It has already been suggested that later adjustment appears to be contingent on adequate bonding in infancy, thus Singer et. al. (1985) assumed that these transracially adopted children eventually shifted from being insecurely attached, to being securely attached, to their adopted mothers. Juffer and Rosenbloom (1997) did not find that transracially adopted children developed insecure
attachments more often than inracially adopted children. They concluded that the age of the children in their study was younger, and that age at adoption might explain the insecure attachment developed in the transracially adopted children in the Singer et. al. (1985) study.
Thus, it seems that the age of the child at adoption is more significant than the race of the child.
Some research has shown that adopted children who are adopted into homes where there are biological children of the adoptive parents tend to experience more social, emotional and behavioural problems than adopted children in families where there are no biological children (Juffer & Rosenbloom, 1997). Juffer and Rosenbloom's (1997) research was not conclusive and they suggest that a longitudinal research design would be necessary in order to understand the origins of these problematic experiences of adopted children in homes where there are biological children. However, Juffer and Rosenbloom (1997) did argue that attachment might be implicated in this phenomena, suggesting that sensitivity to their adopted child's needs may differ
depending on whether or not the adoptive mother has biological children. In this regard they argue that "in attachment theory, the parent's sensitivity is considered a key determinant of attachment security... we found that adoptive mothers with biological children are less sensitive than adoptive mothers without biological children" (p. 105).