Still 'Not Quite As Good As Having Your Own'? Toward a Sociology of Adoption

Datos Bibliográficos

ID2297504
AutoresAllen P Fisher (Coe College)
Año2003
Volumen29
Número1
Páginas335-361
Fecha de publicación2003-08-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessNo
TipoARTICLE
RevistaAnnual Review of Sociology (BOOK_SERIES)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 0360-0572 • E-ISSN: 1545-2115
EditorialAnnual Reviews (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1146/annurev.soc.29.010202.100209
OpenAlexW2108169154
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas101
Referencias citadas61

Despite the fact that adoption is a common practice in the United States and in much of the world today, sociologists have devoted remarkably little attention to it. This review provides a rationale for much more extensive sociological research on adoption. It then summarizes the available empirical literature on who adopts children, and why, and on who relinquishes children for adoption, and why. Most adoptions have favorable outcomes for the members of the adoption triad (birth parents, adoptive parents, and adoptees). Yet the number of adoptions by nonrelatives has declined sharply since 1970, and only a small minority of women who have been treated for infertility have ever sought to adopt. These facts suggest that adoption may still have a stigma attached to it. Sociological research could illuminate whether such a stigma exists, and if so, what the causes and consequences of that stigma might be

Psychiatry · Social science · Sociological research · Sociology · Stigma (botany · Child Welfare and Adoption · Family Dynamics and Relationships · Psychology · Reproductive Health and Technologies · Social Psychology