In July 1997, Renee Polreis of Greeley, Colorado, was convicted of beating her 2-year old son to death, a boy she adopted out of a Russian orphanage. In 1986, the National Association of Black Social Workers issued a position statement opposing the adoption of Black children to non- Black families arguing Black children who grow up in ethnically different families suffer serious identity conflicts and barriers to socialization. The current state of research based on follow-up studies is fragmented. All children adopted internationally face physical and emotional upheaval. First there is the trauma of departure accompanied by separation and loss.
Language plays a critical role in the beginning period of adjustment.
Initially, most children have little proficiency in English and the majority of the adoptive parents do not have language capabilities to converse with their children. Later in life, the greatest obstacle for transition to emotional well being for the international adoptee will be the process of identity formation. For internationally adopted children, this task of forming, clarifying, and reclarifying their identity is an ongoing process that must also include ethnicity. Dr. Juliet Harper is Senior Lecturer on Psychology at Macquarie University in Australia and a child psychotherapist. Dr. Harper looked at the disruption from the child's point of view.