Family interactions and shared fate: associations with adopted adolescent adjustment

Abstract

In recent years, research has suggested that adoption status and family interactions are associated with adolescent externalizing behaviors. Conversations that acknowledge racial and ethnic differences between international adoptees and adoptive parents may also be important for adjustment. However, this association has never been empirically validated. This study tests associations between family interactions, acknowledging racial and ethnic difference, and adolescent adjustment using a sample of 222 adolescent Korean adoptees and their families. Families that acknowledge racial and ethnic difference had adolescents with the fewest externalizing behaviors. General family interactions were associated with acknowledging difference, where positive adolescent communication and dominant mothers tended to be associated with acknowledging difference. Contradictory of general population research, generally positive communication across family members was associated with an increase in adolescent externalizing behavior. Future directions suggest examining the effects of acknowledging racial and ethnic difference in adoptive families for non-adopted sibling and parent adjustment. Future research should also further examine the positive association between communication and adolescent externalizing behaviors in an adoptive sample. Keywords: adoption, family interactions, Shared Fate, adolescent adjustment