UC Merced Undergraduate Research Journal

This literature review focuses on the effects of racial and social cultural socialization among transracially adopted children. This review is finding evidence in pre-existing articles of research from the past ten years and evaluating their findings to further enhance our understanding of socialization among those who have been transracially adopted and may or may not see any of their own culture in their upbringing. Transracial adoptees are adopted children (mainly international) that are adopted into a different culture/race other than their own, thus, making them bicultural. Because of this, adoptees can feel insecure and suffer from low self-esteem because they feel they don’t belong or indulge in conversations with their parents who are of different ethnicity/culture of their own. This review found that although the sample numbers are low, the findings are monumental. Parents have a bigger impact on their children than originally thought, and they help guide their adopted children to socialization. Children can attempt to socialize on their own but without the added guidance; it makes the process slower and does not yield the best results. Researchers’ focus can to continue to be on the parents but needs to have more integration of adoptees in studies.