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ETHNIC IDENTITY DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONALLY ADOPTED CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: IMPLICATIONS FOR FAMILY THERAPISTS
Author(s) -
Friedlander Myrna L.
Publication year - 1999
Publication title -
journal of marital and family therapy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.868
H-Index - 68
eISSN - 1752-0606
pISSN - 0194-472X
DOI - 10.1111/j.1752-0606.1999.tb01109.x
Subject(s) - ethnic group , psychology , identity (music) , family therapy , developmental psychology , psychotherapist , sociology , anthropology , acoustics , physics
The life story of the internationally adopted child tends to be an emotional one. How the story is tole and retold in the family can have lasting consequences for the child's adjustment and well‐being. In telling the story, parents are faced with a qunique challenge: To what extent is it desirable to encourage their children, who adready struggle with identity issue related to adoption, to identify with their cultures of origin? Therapists working on these issues with multiethnic adoptive families can find little guidance in the family systems literature. To fill this gap, the present article reviews the literature on racial/ethnic identity development and the available research on ethnic identification, self‐esteem, and the psychological adjustment of cross‐ethnically adopted children and adolescents. Implications for practice include developmental considerations, identifying chldren and families at risk, and recommendations for those in need of intervention.