Article

A study on perceptions surrounding adoption by adopted children in Korea

Author

최운선, 안재진, 변미희, 권지성

Information

pp. 169~182 / 2011 Vol.18 No.4

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the perceptions of adoption by adopted children and the factors related to it, focusing on the children's characteristics(gender, grade, age at adoption placement), the level of adoption openness to their friends, and adoption-related communication. The data employed was taken from the third wave data of the panel study on Korean adopted children, out of which, the answers of 95 school aged children were used for the purposes of analysis. The results indicate that adopted children perceive the fact of their adoption in a relatively positive way. When correlations between variables were examined, the children's personal characteristics were not related to their perceptions surrounding adoption,but the level of adoption openness and adoption-related communication were found to be positively related to it. The regression analysis also indicated the same results. The higher the level of adoption openness of the children, the more positive their perceptions of adoption were and openness in adoption-related communication was related to more positive perceptions of adoption of school-age adopted children. Based on the results of this study, suggestions are advanced with the aim of building more positive perceptions of adoption on the part of adopted children, and furthermore, to help adopted children's healthy growth and development. The limitations of this study and the need for follow-up studies were also discussed.

Keywords