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Participation in the Adoption Mentoring Partnership: Mentors’ Experiences of Ethnic Identity
Author(s) -
Garber Karin J.,
French Quade Y. S.,
Grotevant Harold D.
Publication year - 2015
Publication title -
new directions for child and adolescent development
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.628
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1534-8687
pISSN - 1520-3247
DOI - 10.1002/cad.20123
Subject(s) - ethnic group , ambivalence , general partnership , context (archaeology) , thematic analysis , feeling , psychology , identity (music) , social psychology , gender studies , sociology , qualitative research , political science , paleontology , social science , physics , anthropology , acoustics , law , biology
The Adoption Mentoring Partnership (AMP) matches preadolescent adoptees with adopted college students, prioritizing matches of the same ethnic background. As part of AMP, participants actively discuss issues of ethnicity and adoption with a cohort of mentors over a period of 1 to 3 years in mentor group meetings (MGMs). This study focuses on mentors’ perceptions of ethnic identity processes within the context of adoption during their participation in AMP. Thematic analysis is used to analyze two interviews from each of 12 internationally and transracially adopted mentors (8 females, 4 males; average age = 20.4 years; birth countries from Asia or Latin America). Four overarching domains emerged: personal ethnic identity exploration, communication with family members about adoption/ethnicity, social exchanges outside the family, and mentors’ perceived personal meanings of ethnicity while participating in AMP. All mentors acknowledged degrees of ambivalence around ethnic identity, yet reported overwhelmingly positive feelings about participating in AMP.