What Are The Sociological Aspects Of Adoption?
I have to write an outline for a sociology essay. the essay can be on any topic, I just have to relate it to four major points in sociology (ex. culture, religion, socialization, gender, education, inequality, race, etc.) I have chosen adoption, but i am having trouble choosing four points to relate adoption to.Can you help?
Tags: Adoption, Aspects, Sociological, What
February 25th, 2010 at 4:20 AM
Culture is passed from one generation to the next, so for childless couples who can’t reproduce, adoption actually keeps their culture alive.
All religions discuss children as being gifts from a higher power. Most religions encourage people to have children, adoption helps them fullfil their religious expectations of themselves.
Socialization: Much like culture it is everything that we learn as human beings, parents who tell their children from an early age that they were adopted have a better psychological outcome (higher self esteem and acceptance) than parents who spring it on them when the child is a teen ager. HOwever with our growing knowlege of genetic disease etc. it is important for children to know their biological parents medical history, and children can not access that information in “closed adoptions.”
There are open adoptions in which the biological parent gets picture updates, gets to visit the family through out the child’s life. The adoptive parents hold ALL the parental rights, but still allow the other parent in the family. This is close to what some very rich people do, i.e., sending their kids off to boarding school, or some absent parents – or long distance parents, who only see their kids a few times a year.
Many adopted children will have a better opportunity in education becuases it is likely that they will go to a middle class to upper middle class family and the schools are ALWAYS better than working class communities, because although this country is supposed to be equal the school system is based on the property taxes of the surrounding homes.
Race, now this is a problem, we all know that race has NOTHING to do with culture because race is inherited through your genes and culture is LEARNED. Children adopted in to other race families have trouble with identity formation, but not until the teens. Bi-racial children regardless of parents have trouble with identity formation and generally take longer to find a comfortable sense of self. We have self esteem and we also have such a thing as racial self esteem, if the child is African American living in an all white community it is difficult because the child is just one of them, but stands out, and may be viewed as “different” or an outsider. If all the images that child sees is negative or the majority is a negative reflection of his or her racial phenotype, the child will have problems with racial self esteem, especially if the adopted parents to bring it up and have a safe place to discuss it completely and the child’s views are looked down upon. As any “dark” child even with in their own biological family, the darker you are the more “teased” you are. In fact that was a problem for Michael Jackson, is father often chatized him for his strong AFrican American features (Joe was light) and we have seen the outcome of this his self esteem as well as racial self esteem