Transracially Adopted Korean American Adults Raising Multiracial Children: A Qualitative Study

• In Event: 3-120 - Examining the Role of Parents in the Racial Development of Multiracial Youth

Integrative Statement

This study examines ethnic-racial socialization practices among transracially adopted Korean Americans who are parents of multiracial Asian-White children. Adopted Korean Americans (KAD) have unique ethnic-racial experiences growing up as visible minorities in transracial White adoptive families (Lee, 2003). It is speculated that many KADs go on to marry or partner with someone who is White, and subsequently they have multiracial children.
Multiracial children experience unique challenges and resiliencies related to ethnic-racial identity. Challenges include discrimination based on their multiracial identity or ambiguous racial appearance, lack of family acceptance, and disbelief from others regarding racial heritage; resiliencies include multiracial identity pride, appreciating diversity, and creating spaces for multiracial identity affirmation (Salahuddin & O’Brien, 2011; Yoo et al., 2016). Little is known about how multiracial families, particularly transracial adoptee families, socialize children around race and ethnicity to promote resilience and prepare for racial and ethnic challenges.
This qualitative investigation of KAD parents’ experiences raising multiracial Asian-White children sought to answer the following research questions: (a) How do KAD parents acknowledge and make sense of being a multiracial family? (b) How does it inform the way they raise their children across different developmental periods?
Method. Participants were drawn from a larger study of adopted Korean Americans (N = 51) who are parents of children ages 3-18. The present sample (N = 28; 93% female; Mage = 40.75 years) included participants with at least one biological multiracial (Asian-White) child. Participants were married to/partnered with (N = 27) or divorced/separated from (N = 1) the White biological co-parent of their children. Participants completed semi-structured individual interviews about their experiences as a parent. Interviews lasted 1-1.5 hours and were audio-recorded, then transcribed verbatim. We identified major themes from the data using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006).
Results. Four themes emerged from the coding process (see Fig. 1). Appearance referred to parents’ descriptions of their children’s appearances and how appearances informed their intentions and practices around ethnic-racial socialization. Multiple racial identities described parents’ intentions and actions related to acknowledging and promoting pride in children’s multiple racial identities. Location and social context described how parents’ socialization intentions and efforts were facilitated or challenged by their particular location and social context, or their efforts in seeking out specific contexts to promote socialization. All three of these themes also included the involvement of the KAD parents’ partner or co-parent in raising multiracial children. Being a multiracial family described KAD parents’ understanding of building a multiracial family and included subthemes of three family units: Individual, Partner Relationship, and Family.
The study findings complement prior ethnic-racial socialization research and the other studies in this symposium by not only examining parents’ actual socialization behaviors, but also their intentions around socialization and their understanding of multiracial identity. The findings suggest that although many KAD parents value ethnic-racial socialization, their practices may vary based on factors such as support of their co-parents and available resources in their local communities. Implications for parenting interventions will be discussed.

Authors

• Christine Wu, University of Minnesota
  Presenting Author

• Samuel Lee, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Xiang Zhou, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• JaeRan Kim, University of Washington
  Non-Presenting Author

• Heewon Lee, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author

• Richard Lee, University of Minnesota
  Non-Presenting Author