Communicative Openness in Adoption, Knowledge of Culture of Origin, and Adoption Identity in Adolescents Adopted From Romania

Abstract

Eighty adolescents (39 male, mean age = 15.74 years) adopted from Romanian institutions in early childhood rated their own and their adoptive parents’ communicative openness, their knowledge of Romanian culture, and positive and negative feelings concerning birth parents, being placed for adoption, and being adopted. Adolescents were moderately comfortable talking about their adoptions but perceived their parents to be very comfortable. Nearly 40% reported no familiarity with Romanian culture. Youth with more familiarity with Romanian culture were more communicatively open and had more positive adoption identities. Greater communicative openness was also associated with more positive adoption identities. Gender and age at adoption differences are reported.

KEYWORDS:

• adoption
• communicative openness
• ethnic identity

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their sincere gratitude to the participants of this study and their families, to Elinor Ames who initiated the Romanian Adoption Project, and to the Human Early Learning Partnership for generous financial support.