Transracial and Inracial Adoption of Special Needs Children

Abstract

About 300 families who adopted a special needs minority or mixed race child responded to a mailed questionnaire. Twenty-two percent of these adoptions were transracial. Transracial adoptees were more often handicapped and had more often experienced sexual abuse, group home or psychiatric placement, and adoption disruption prior to placement. Inracially adopting families evidenced less problematic parent-child relationships but little difference was apparent when multiple regression controlled for the above-mentioned factors. Exploratory analyses reveal interactions of transracial placement with several other factors.