Fascinating article on Korean adoption

[RedOakMomma]

A friend just forwarded this to me:

http://www.creatingafamily.org/blog/adoption-domestic-adoption-international-adoption-embryo-adoption-foster-care-adoption/south-korean-adoptions-canary-international-adoption/

It starts out with pretty standard information, but later in the article it discusses what many people don't...the fate of children not adopted within or from South Korea.  ...."four options available for babies and children relinquished and abandoned in Korea– domestic adoption (17%), international adoption (12%), foster care (25%), and large child welfare institutions (46%)."

I knew children that weren't adopted were being placed in foster care or institutions until they were 18, but I had no idea it was almost 75% of the children in need of homes.  I'm also glad to see someone address the idea of whether it's better to grow up in a South Korean institution (losing a traditional family and often societal acceptance, but maintaining your culture and language) versus growing up in an international adoptive family.  Of course there's no definitive answer on what would be best for an individual, but I'm glad to see someone is doing the research on whether kids, on average, seem to fare better or worse in different situations.

Little research has been done on Korean children raised in domestic adoptive homes or foster homes. One ongoing study, Behavioral Development of Korean Children Placed in Foster Care, Domestic Adoptive Families, and International Adoptive Families, is being conducted jointly by the University of Minnesota and two universities in South Korea. Researchers are finding that children who were adopted, either domestically in South Korea or internationally to the United States, had better behavioral outcomes than children placed in foster care in South Korea. Interestingly, internationally adopted children fared better than domestically adopted children.

There are many interesting links to studies and other articles in it as well.  I very much appreciate her blunt assessments in "What Happens From Here," and tend to agree with almost all of what she wrote.  Korea's in a tricky position.  They need to rapidly increase domestic adoption and change cultural attitudes toward single moms/adopted kids while decreasing the ease of international adoption as a "fix"... and in the meantime there are tens of thousands of children raised without families.

Edited by RedOakMomma - 9/14/11 at 6:53pm

[CrunchyChristianMama]

I will bookmark this to read for sure when I have a chance.  We were going to be doing an international adoption before we switched to domestic for a few different reasons.  I'm always interested in looking at the different outcomes for kids in these situations though.  I'm glad evaluation is being done on how they fare in the different situations.  Thanks for passing it along.