Market segmentation in child adoption

2007

Journal of Family Strengths, 2014

Adoption Quarterly, 2020

The promotion of speedy, permanent adoption outcomes for children in foster care whose parental rights have been terminated is a central child welfare policy goal. However, while both children of color and children with disabilities are at greater risk for child welfare involvement, little is known about influence of these intersecting identities on adoption rates. This cross-sectional national study draws on the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) to explore the between and within group foster care outcomes of adoption. While we expected to see advantages in outcomes based on identification with privileged social identities, our findings were much more varied. Implications relate to the need for the conduct of multi-systemic equity assessment of child welfare systems and practices.

2014

Currently over 800,000 children are in the U.S. foster care system. A large proportion, over 20% in most states, of these children are waiting to be adopted. Prolonged stay in foster homes can be detrimental to the welfare of the child besides externalities such as higher rates of crime (Doyle, 2008). We estimate the causal e↵ects of two factors that impact the number of children adopted from domestic foster care: 1) the increasing number of international child adoptions in the U.S. 2) the increased births due to artificial reproductive technologies (ART). We identify the e↵ects using instrumental variables and find a significant reduction in child adoptions from foster care due to the increase in international adoptions, but find no e↵ect on adoptions from domestic foster care due to the ART births.

1976

Children and Youth Services Review, 2019

This study examined the effect of privatization policy on the issue of racial disparity in the child welfare system. Method: Specific outcomes for N = 118,761 foster children across 10 states were compared to determine if the state system type [privatized vs. non-privatized] had any influence on disparities in outcomes by race. Results: A main effect emerged for race and in the interactions between system type and race. Discussion: The extent of disparity for children of color in foster care was supported, but for some outcomes, both groups fared better in privatized systems. 1.1. Racial disproportionality and disparity in foster care Historically, African American and American Indian/Alaskan Native children have been overrepresented in the foster care system, evidenced by both making up 24% and 2% of foster children but only 14% and 1% of the total child population, respectively (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2015a, 2015b). Additionally, these children of

2006

More than 20,000 white Americans go abroad each year to adopt children from other countries, the majority of whom are not white. At the same time, there are more African-American children available for adoption than there are African-American families seeking to adopt them. While Americans claim there are few healthy infants available for adoption in the United States, hundreds of African-American newborns each year are placed with white families in Canada and other countries. Tracing the history of transracial adoption in the United States, Professor Maldonado argues that one reason Americans go abroad to adopt is race. The racial hierarchy in the adoption market places white children at the top, African-American children at the bottom, and children of other races in between, thereby possibly rendering children from Asia or Latin America more desirable to adoptive parents than African-American children. Drawing on the rich literature on cognitive bias, Professor Maldonado debunks t...

2018

This paper is directed towards the African American community, focused on how to increase Black parent adoptions, including why these families are needed, ways to attract Black families to adopt, and how to recruit Black families to adopt children. Approximately 23 % of all children available for adoption in the United States are Black, while only 13.4% of the U.S. population is Black (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Children's Bureau, 2018; U.S. Census Bureau, 2018). An examination of the history of Black adoption, including the lack of consistent research on Black adoptive families creates a background for the need to adopt and the increase of Black family adoptions. Encouraging Black families to adopt by dispelling fears, can create more available homes for children (Alexander, Dore, Hollingsworth, & Hoopes, 2004; Woodward, 2016). The steps towards bridging the gap of the inadequate number of parents for Black children are utilized: education, awareness, training, and certification to adopt. Discussion of why more Black families do not adopt children. Keywords: Black families, African American adoption, Black Church social justice, transracial adoption, color-blind adoption