Adoption in the United States:
A Critical Synthesis of
Literature and Directions for Sociological Research
Samuel L. Perry
**Please cite as: Perry, Samuel L. 2013. “Adoption in the
United States: A Critical
Synthesis of Literature and Directions for Sociological Research.” Unpublished
Manuscript. doi: 10.13140/RG.2.2.12929.25448/1
Introduction
Adoption
1
is arguably the most neglected family relationship in the sociology of the
family. To be sure, there is no shortage of academic books and articles written on adoption (for
reviews, see Fisher 2003; Lee 2003; Palacios and Brodzinsky 2010). However, sociologists have
historically been content to surrender the topic of adoption to researchers in social work,
psychology, history, and mental health.
This tendency is unmistakably apparent in the nearly-
complete absence of articles on the topic of adoption (or foster care) in the flagship sociological
journals.
2
For example, since 1980, the
American Sociological Review
has published 1 article on
adoptive parents (Hamilton, Cheng, and Powell 2007) and the
American Journal of Sociology
published 1 article on Korean adoptees (Shaio and Tuan 2008).
3
Even a brief perusal of
publications on some aspect of adoption within the
Journal of Marriage and Family
reveals that
most of these articles are written, not by sociologists, but by scholars in social work, psychology,
or family science departments (for an exception, see Smock and Greenland 2010).
Given the
large (and growing
4
) number of American individuals and families whom adoption impacts; the
welter of political and social controversy that has historically surrounded the practice; the
implications of adoption for contemporary social issues such as race/ethnicity, gender, sexuality,
and class; and its modern-day international scope; the dearth of sociological attention to this
topic is shocking.
5
1
The term “adoption” refers to the severing of legal ties between biological parent and their minor child and the
placement of that child into the guardianship of a non-biological parent. Non-biological parents may include blood
relatives, stepparents, or
“strangers” who are not related to the child apart from their legal status as parents. This last
relationship has historically been termed “stranger
-
adoption” and tends to receive the most attention in the research
literature (Fisher 2003; Melosh 2002). Th
us, throughout this essay, any reference to “adoption” will mean “stranger
adoption” unless otherwise indicated.
2
At the time of this writing, I await a draft of a forthcoming article in the
Annual Review of Sociology
, entitled
“Somebody’s Children or Nobody’s Children? Sociological Perspectives on the Foster Care System,” by
Christopher Wildeman and Jane Waldfogel (forthcoming).
3
Although a number of articles in each journal have included adoptive families in samples, these articles were not
about adoption per se, but about other topics such as the relationship between genetic heritability and educational or
socioeconomic outcomes.
