Race and culture

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• ‘I started to feel not ashamed of who I was’: transracially adopted adults and adoption support

  2014 · England

  Researchers interviewed transracially adopted adults and held a lesbian, gay and bisexual focus group within an adoption-support evaluation. Accounts from 12 adults described what support meant to them and gaps in provision. The paper examines support needs linked to transracial adoption using participants’ own accounts.

• ‘We lacked crucial information about the child’s ethnicity and cultural background…’: Challenging post-racial phantasmagoria and promoting race intentionality in transracial adoption

  2026 · England

  Co-creation focus groups with 55 participants, including adoptees, social workers and adoptive parents, explored how adoption practice addresses racial and cultural identity. Analysis identified gaps in cultural information and preparation, and the need to consider identity before placement and work with birth families. The authors interpret these findings through a framework examining assumptions that race no longer matters.

• (De)racializing “common sense”: media perspectives on adoption reform in England

  2020 · England

  The researcher analysed coverage of adoption reform in five national newspapers and their Sunday counterparts. The study examined how reporting addressed race, ethnicity, identities and family relationships. It found coverage that played down the significance of race while presenting ethnic matching as a threat, and interpreted this pattern through the concept of moral panic.

• Adopted Children and Their Grandparents: Views from three Generations

  2009 · United Kingdom

  This study examined adoptive family relationships across three generations. A quantitative component involved 236 respondents, and interviews were conducted with children, parents and grandparents in six white British families. The analysis described grandparents as symbolising acceptance and approval within these families, alongside the cultural expectation that grandparents provide enjoyable relationships.

• Adoption as a solution to intractable parenting problems: Evidence from two English studies

  2009 · England

  The paper draws on two English studies: a cohort of 130 children aged three to eleven recommended for adoption, and research into minority ethnic children’s pathways to permanence. Delays were associated with whether adoption occurred. In the first study, adopted and long-term fostered children differed little on several psychosocial outcomes, although attachment outcomes favoured the adopted group.

• Adversity, adoption and afterwards: A mid-life follow-up study of women adopted from Hong Kong

  2013 · United Kingdom; Hong Kong

  This book examines women adopted from Hong Kong orphanages into UK families, following their lives into middle age. The publisher describes standardised outcome measures, comparisons with other adopted and non-adopted women, and qualitative interviews. Detailed findings are not summarised because the book itself was not reviewed.

• Assessing Community Connectedness and Self-Regard in a Mid-Life Follow-up of British Chinese Adoptions

  2012 · United Kingdom research context (sample geography not specified in abstract)

  Researchers studied community belonging, identity and self-regard among 72 Hong Kong-born women adopted into British families in the 1960s. They developed questionnaires and examined connections between community belonging and wellbeing alongside interviews. The abstract does not give specific association results.

• British-Chinese adoptees and the transracial experience: whiteness, ‘Chineseness’ and the fluidity of privilege

  2026 · United Kingdom

  Focus groups and follow-up interviews with 45 British-Chinese adoptees examine race, belonging and adoption in predominantly white families. Using a constructivist approach and an adoptee researcher’s autoethnographic standpoint, the thesis interprets experiences through postcolonial and critical race theory.

• Full adoption in England and Wales and France: a comparative history of law and practice (1926–2015)

  2017 · England and Wales; France

  This historical comparison examines why England and Wales and France developed different patterns of domestic and intercountry adoption. It compares adoption law and practice from 1926 to 2015. The author relates the greater use of domestic adoption in England and Wales to child-protection placements, and discusses how historical child migration and debates about transracial adoption influenced approaches to adoption from abroad.

• Further analysis of the British Chinese Adoption Study (BCAS): Adult life events and experiences after international adoption

  2018 · UK; women adopted from Hong Kong

  Questionnaires and interviews with 68 women in their forties and early fifties examined adult lives after adoption from Hong Kong orphanages into UK families during the 1960s. Most described broadly stable, supported lives with difficult periods. Unhappiness about adoption and partnership adversity after age 25 were associated with poorer midlife functioning. Childhood experiences were not associated with patterns of adult adversity.

• Identity, Race, Religion and Adoption: The Public and Legal View

  2004 · England and Wales

  The researchers used more than 1,200 questionnaires from a stratified sample of the public in England and Wales to examine views about race, religion and cultural identity in adoption. They analysed how views varied with respondents’ characteristics and compared public perceptions with adoption law. The abstract describes the questions and analysis but does not report the detailed results.

• It changed my life completely: user views and experiences of post-adoption services

  2003 · England (West Midlands)

  This doctorate examined users’ experiences of West Midlands Post Adoption Service. Methods included enquiry records, support-group data, a postal survey, 41 user interviews, focus groups and work with an adopted child. Participants included adoptees and other people affected by adoption. Many reported difficulty finding appropriate help before reaching the service; most described benefits from its support and relationships with workers.

• Matching, Ethnicity and Identity: Reflections on the Practice and Realities of Ethnic Matching in Adoption

  2012 · England

  This evaluation compared a specialist service placing Black, Asian and dual-heritage children with a general adoption service in the same organisation. It combined placement statistics with staff and adopter interviews. The authors reported that recruiting minority ethnic families could enable placements with families of similar heritage. It examines service practice and matching, rather than measuring adoptees’ later identity or wellbeing.

• Names and naming in adoption: Birth heritage and family-making

  2020 · England and Wales policy context; international reviewed literature

  This review examined research about naming in adoption, using database searches, UK research publications and thematic coding. It organised the literature around birth heritage and forming adoptive family identities. Names were connected with cultural identity, birth-family links and belonging. The authors identified limited research directly examining adoptees’ experiences of naming.

• Outcomes of permanent family placement for children of minority ethnic origin

  2001 · United Kingdom

  The researchers analysed 254 placements, mostly drawn from a British cohort placed with permanent families in the early 1980s. They examined factors associated with placements not known to have broken down. Age at placement and behavioural difficulties were associated with stability. Placement type and continued birth-parent contact were not associated with stability in this analysis; patterns involving ethnic matching differed between boys and girls.

• Pathways to adoption for minority ethnic children in England – reasons for entry to care

  2011 · England

  This study examined why 120 minority ethnic children recommended for adoption entered care in England. It found differences between ethnic groups in children’s and mothers’ characteristics, reasons for entry and age at referral. The authors reported no evidence of discriminatory removal in this sample. That finding concerns the cases and evidence studied, rather than establishing the absence of discrimination throughout the system.

• Pathways to Permanence for Black, Asian and Mixed Ethnicity Children

  2010 · England

  This study examined minority ethnic children’s care pathways in three English local authorities, comparing decisions and outcomes with those of white children, particularly around permanent placements. The publisher description verifies a comparative research study. Detailed findings and numerical estimates from the book have not been reviewed for this record.

• Permanent Family Placement for Children of Minority Ethnic Origin

  2000 · United Kingdom

  This book reports a long-term study of minority ethnic children placed with adoptive or foster families during the 1980s. It examines placement stability, ethnic identity and birth-family contact, and includes accounts from young people and carers. The publisher description establishes the research topics but does not support detailed outcome estimates here.

• Race, Adoption and Tomorrow's Social Workers

  1998 · United Kingdom (regional recruitment not established)

  A questionnaire study examined social-work students’ attitudes towards race and adoption. Respondents were mainly second-year students specialising in children and families. Views differed widely, with overall qualified support for same-race adoption. Minority ethnic students were more likely than white students to support same-race placements.

• Reviewing the history of domestic adoption for racially minoritised children in the United Kingdom: Over half a century of controversy

  2026 · United Kingdom

  A desk-based historical review examines adoption of racially minoritised children in the UK. It traces changing legal frameworks, policy, practice and research, including debates about ethnic matching and transracial adoption. The analysis situates these changes within migration, mixed-heritage families and wider race relations.

• Searching, reunion and transracial adoption

  2000 · United Kingdom

  Interviews with transracially adopted adults found racial and ethnic identity could be an important motivation for searching. Participants often felt they gained from search or reunion, while hopes concerning racial or ethnic identity were not always met.

• Sense of belonging, sense of exclusion, and racial and ethnic identities in Korean transracial adoptees

  2010 · United States

  Fourteen adult Korean transracial adoptees described how belonging and exclusion within white American, Korean American and family contexts shaped racial and ethnic identity. It foregrounds adoptees' own accounts of navigating multiple cultural reference groups.

• The Black Adoption Project: Phase 1 report

  2023 · England

  The report analysed local and national adoption data to examine racial differences in children’s routes to adoption, alongside community surveys and focus groups. Black children with placement orders were less likely to be placed for adoption and waited longer than white British children. This entry concerns the administrative findings about children; the report also contains adopter-perspective research.

• The British Chinese Adoption Study: orphanage care, adoption and mid-life outcomes

  2013 · United Kingdom; Hong Kong (origin)

  Researchers traced a historical group of one hundred Hong Kong-born girls adopted into UK families, using orphanage records, questionnaires and mid-life interviews. Seventy-two took part in follow-up. Average mental and physical health measures were similar to comparison groups of UK-born adopted and nonadopted women. Participants reporting poorer adoptive-family experiences or more negative views of their adoption also reported poorer mental health.

• The Importance of Cultural Identity in Adoption: A Study of Young People Adopted from Romania

  2008 · United Kingdom

  Researchers interviewed young people adopted from Romania at ages 11 and 15, alongside parent interviews at earlier and later assessments. Most identified as English or Anglo-Romanian and expressed interest in Romania. Interest in Romania was not associated with self-esteem; the small group identifying primarily as Romanian had lower self-esteem and more deprivation-related difficulties.

• The Placement of Black Children with Permanent New Families

  1992 · United Kingdom

  The paper reports an exploratory follow-up in 1991–1992 of minority ethnic children within an earlier survey of permanent placements by major voluntary adoption agencies. The original survey covered 1,165 children with special needs placed in 1980–1984, including 241 Black and other minority ethnic children. The abstract identifies the cohort and research purpose but does not report detailed findings.

• The Usefulness of Oral Life (Hi)story to Understand and Empower: The Case of Trans-Racial Adoption

  2005 · United Kingdom (programme context; article sample detail not established)

  Drawing on research with transracial adoptees, this article examines the use of oral life-history interviews. It describes the research design and discusses methodological difficulties and the opportunities this approach offers for adoptees to explain their own experiences.

• Theorising the Racial Identity Development of Transracial Adoptees: A Symbolic Interactionist Perspective

  2007 · United Kingdom

  This British study examined racial identity among adults adopted transracially as children. Qualitative accounts collected in 2000–2003 were analysed using a symbolic interactionist approach. The article describes how family differences, other people’s racial categorisation and experiences of inclusion and exclusion shaped identities combining birth and adoptive heritages.

• Trans-racial adoption : a study of race, identity and policy

  2004 · United Kingdom

  Using oral life-history interviews, this thesis examines transracial adoptees’ racial identity and belonging. Participants described racialised difference as sometimes isolating and sometimes positive, and connected these experiences with searches for birth heritage. The thesis interprets identity as changing and negotiated rather than fixed.

• Transnational adoptions and Life-Trajectories: a biography study of teenage and young adult adoptees living in Austria, England and Sweden

  2011 · England, Austria and Sweden

  Interviews and biographical photographs from 19 young people explored identity and life paths after transnational adoption. Participants lived in Austria, England and Sweden. Analysis highlighted support within adoptive families, connections with other adoptees and changes over time in interest in adoption and cultural identity. The author developed an interpretive model to organise these life histories.

• Where Do They Belong?—Adoption of Mixed-Race Children in Late 1950s and Early 1960s Britain

  2022 · Great Britain (regional breakdown not specified)

  Historical research examined mixed-race children’s adoption in Britain during the late 1950s and early 1960s. Analysis of adoption records and advice literature identified colonial and racial assumptions shaping treatment of children and their birth and adoptive families.

• Why are we waiting? The demography of adoption for children of black, Asian and black mixed parentage in England

  2005 · England

  A study of adopter recruitment policy and practice examined adoption prospects for children of black, Asian and mixed heritage in England. Researchers described differences in children’s age profiles and needs, and considered how population patterns and adopter expectations could affect matching and waiting.