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ABSTRACT
Data from Cycle 5 of the National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) (1995) were analyzed to identify factors that could predict whether a woman 18-44 years of age would ever have sought to adopt a child. Of the 10,019 women in the specified age group overall, 508 (5.1 percent) had ever sought to adopt, including 5.4 percent of white women and 5.2 percent of black women. Multiple logistic regression analyses were conducted for all women and for white women and black women separately. Among women who were white, the likelihood of having ever sought to adopt increased under conditions of childlessness, a history of treatment for infertility and surgical sterility for non-contraceptive reasons, non-surgical sterility, or physical difficulty in becoming pregnant (subfecundity), and if the woman was married, older, had some amount of college education, and considered religion very important. Having received assisted reproductive technology treatment also increased the likelihood that women in this group had sought to adopt. The likelihood of having ever sought to adopt increased among black women who were childless, older, and surgically sterile for non-contraceptive reasons, non-surgically sterile, or subfe-cund. However, having been treated for infertility and the presence of “resource” variables (other than age) did not predict that black women would have sought adoption. Among women of all races, having been a foster parent to a child increased the likelihood that the woman had sought to adopt the child when the woman was also childless, had been treated for infertility, was non-surgically sterile or subfecund, and older. Having been a foster parent was a significant predictor among white women who were childless and had ever been treated for infertility. Results are discussed in terms of benefits and limitations of all analyses and in terms of their implications for practice, policy, and research.