IQ Test Performance of Black Children Adopted by White Families

The poor performance of black children on IQ tests and in school has been hypothesized to arise from (a) genetic racial differences or (6) cultural/ environmental disadvantages. To separate genetic factors from rearing conditions, 130 black/interracial children adopted by advantaged white families were studied. The socially classified black adoptees, whose natural parents were educationally average, scored above the IQ and the school achievement mean of the white population. Biological children of the adoptive parents scored even higher. Genetic and environmental determinants of differences among the black/interracial adoptees were largely confounded. The high IQ scores of the socially classified black adoptees indicate malleability for IQ under rearing conditions that are relevant to the tests and the schools. It is well known that black children reared by their own families achieve IQ scores that average about a standard deviation ( IS points) below whites (Jensen, 1973; Loehlin, Lindzey, & Spuhler, 197S). This finding is at the heart of a continuing controversy in the educational arena. Recent studies (Cleary, Humphreys, Kendrick, & Wesman, 1975) confirm the hypothesis that low IQ scores predict poor school performance, regardless of race. Thus, more black children than white children fail to achieve academically and to earn the credentials required by higher occupational status, with its The present study was supported by the Grant Foundation and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (HD-08016). This study was conducted with the full collaboration of the Minnesota State Department of Public Welfare, Adoption Unit, directed by Ruth Weidell and assisted by Marjorie Flowers. Their help was invaluable. The additional support of the Open Door Society, Lutheran Social Service, and The Children's Home Society, all of Minnesota, facilitated the study. We are very grateful for the assistance of Louise CarterSaltzman, Harold Grotevant, Margaret Getman, Marsha Sargrad, Patricia Webber, Joanne Bergman, William Thompson, and CaroJ Nelson. Requests for reprints should be sent to Sandra Scarr, Institute of Child Development, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota 55455. concomitant social prestige and economic security (Husen, 1974; Jencks, 1972). In an attempt to remedy the alarming rate of school failure, compensatory educational programs, which were directed particularly at black children, were introduced in the 1960s. At the same time, but for different reasons, a more intensive 'intervention began: the adoption of black children by white families. Whereas compensatory educational programs involve the child for a few hours per day, transracial adoption alters the entire social ecology of the child. Parents, siblings, home, peers, school, neighborhood, and community—the child's rearing environment—are transformed by adoption. The existence of transracial families offers much to the scientific study of social milieus and intellectual performance (Grow & Shapiro, 1974; Loehlin et al., 197S). Transracial adoption is the human analog of the cross-fostering design, commonly used in animal behavior genetics research (e.g., Manosevitz, Lindzey, & Thiessen, 1969). The study of transracial adoption can yield estimates of biological and sociocultural effects on the IQ test performance of cross-fostered children. The results of a transracial or cross-fostering study require careful interpretation. Black children reared in white homes are socially labeled as black and therefore may suffer racial discrimination. Because of the unmeasured effects of racism, poor IQ test performance by black children in white homes cannot be uncritically interpreted as a result of genetic limitations. In addition, equal performance by black and other adoptees cannot be interpreted as an indication of the same range of reaction for all groups. Again, the unknown effects of racism may inhibit the intellectual development of the black adoptees. However, equally high IQs for black and other adoptees would imply that IQ performance is considerably malleable. Upper-middle-class white families have an excellent reputation for rearing children who perform 726 • OCTOBER 1976 • AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST well on IQ tests and in school. When such families adopt white children, the adoptees have been found to score above average on IQ tests, but not as highly as .the biological offspring of the same and similar families (Burks, 1.928; Freeman, Holzinger, & Mitchell, 1928; Leahy, 1935; Munsinger, 197Sb; Skodak & Skeels, 1949). How do the IQ test scores of black children adopted by white families compare to the scores of both white adoptees and the biological children"of these parents? If black children have genetically limited intellectual potential, as some have claimed (Jensen, 1973; Shockley, 1971, 1972), their IQ performance will fall below that of other children reared in white upper-middle-class homes. On the other hand, if black children have a range of reaction similar to other adoptees, their IQ scores should have a similar distribution. The concept, range of reaction, refers to the fact that genotypes do not usually specify a single phenotype. Rather, genotypes specify a range of phenotypic responses that the organism can make to a variety of environmental conditions. This is an investigation of the IQ test performance of black and interracial black children adopted by white families in Minnesota. The present study is part of a larger investigation of the psychosocial functioning of transracial adoptive families. Intellectual, personality, and attitudinal tests were administered to the parents and all children over the age of 4 years. Extensive interviews were conducted with the parents, and ratings of the home environment were made. Minnesota has been in the forefront of interracial adoption. Although the black population of the state is small (.9% in 1970), there were too many black and interracial children available for adoption and too few black families to absorb them. Minority group children—black, American Indian, Korean, and Vietnamese—have consequently been adopted by white families in large numbers. Furthermore, in recent years, many nonwhite children have been adopted from other states. The climate for interracial adoption changed dramatically in the late 1950s and early 1960s because of the efforts of public and private agencies and the pioneering white adoptive parents. Several agency and parent organizations were formed to promote the adoption of black and interracial black children. The most influential, continuing organization is the Open Door Society of Minnesota, formed in 1966 by adoptive parents of socially classified black children. The founding president of the Open Door Society is a leading columnist on one of the Minneapolis daily newspapers who frequently writes about his multiracial family. The intellectual and social climate of Minnesota is generally conducive to liberal and humanitarian movements such as interracial adoption.