International adopters and their children: Birth culture ties

This study explores parents’ attitudes toward helping their internationally adopted children develop an appreciation for the cultures of the children’s birth countries and surveys the culture-related activities in which they and their children engage. While most parents believed their child’s primary attachment should be to American culture, they accorded great importance to their child forming ties to his/her birth culture. Both the adopted child’s region of origin and the parent’s gender had an impact on attitudes and activities. Parents who adopted from Asia and mothers generally accorded greater importance to and participated more frequently in cultural activities with their children than parents who adopted from Europe and fathers. Patricia Hanigan Scroggs is a foreign service officer with the U.S. Department of State and the mother of two daughters adopted from China. A specialist in economic affairs, she has served overseas in Mexico, Korea, and Japan and in various Washington assignments for the State Department. She conducted this research while a fellow in the State Department’s Una Chapman Cox Sabbatical Leave Program. She is presently studying Justice, Law, and Society and holds a graduate degree in forensic psychology from John Jay College of Criminal Justice.