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Mei-Lin Williams

Zachary Gregory

ENG 1201

15 March 2021

Literature Review

Most people believe that the adoption happens and then everything is perfect and the

adoptee no longer has any worries. Adopted children and few non-adoptees know the real truth

behind adoption. Do you have a family member who was adopted? Have you ever wondered

about the long-lasting effects of adoption for adoptees?

As goes for any life situation, not all adoption stories are the same because there are

many different situations where adoptions can occur. There are many forms of adoption, such as,

domestic, international, public, private, independent, open, or closed, which are all more than

filling out paperwork (American Adoptions).

Parents of adoptive children are sometimes the child’s first parental figure and sometimes

are the second, third, fourth, and so on. There are many who don’t even know their own

beginnings like most international adoptees and child abduction and trafficking swept

international programs (Leland).

Many parents adopt to create their families, which is what Diane Clehane did when

adopting her daughter, Madeline from China. She explains that “I did not adopt Madeline

because of some great humanitarian calling. I simply wanted to be a mother (Clehane). Sadly,
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there are some parents who adopt to “save” kids from other countries or with controversial

motives, rather than just wanting to have a loving family.

That being said, identity can be an important factor to adoptees who are searching for

answers. Catherine Robertson tells us her pain of searching for answers over the span of 25 years

and how some adoptive families left writing “unknown” on medical history forms because of the

lack of knowledge of where their child comes from (Robertson).

With adoption being a stressful event for children, the children often develop trauma

from their experiences (Muntean). The trauma of being abandoned and unwanted stays with a

child for most of their lives, even if they do not realize it. Childhood abandonment affects

adulthood and generally causes them to be insecure, in need of constant reassurance, and clingy

towards relationships.

Adoptees struggle more than they seem like from the outside and listening to their stories

will help them and help spread awareness of what real adoption is. The effects of abandonment

and adoption stick with children and usually aren’t recognized until later in life when the adoptee

begins to search for answers.

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Working Bibliography

American Adoptions. American Adoptions - American Adoptions - America's Adoption Agency,

2020, www.americanadoptions.com/.

Clehane, Diane. “The Chinese Adoption Effect.” Vanity Fair, 2008,

www.vanityfair.com/news/2008/08/adoption200808.

Leland, John. “For Adoptive Parents, Questions Without Answers.” The New York Times, 2011,

www.nytimes.com/2011/09/18/nyregion/chinas-adoption-scandal-sends-chills-through-fa

milies-in-united-states.html.

Muntean, Ana, et al. “Complex Trauma of Abandoned Children and Adoption as a Healing

Process.” 2012,

sinclair.ohionet.org:80/login?url=https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db

=edselp&AN=S1877042812012347&site=eds-live.

Robertson, Catherine. “The Secret Identity Of An Adopted Child: Catharine Robertson at

TEDxBaltimore 2014.” Performance by Catherine Robertson, YouTube, TEDxTalks, 27

Feb. 2014, www.youtube.com/watch?v=oG_JdW54pJY.