Building Kinship and Community: Relational Processes of Bicultural Identity Among Adult Multiracial Adoptees

Posted in Articles, Family/Parenting, Identity Development/Psychology, Media Archive, United States on 2010-03-13 17:25Z by Steven

Building Kinship and Community: Relational Processes of Bicultural Identity Among Adult Multiracial Adoptees

Family Process
Volume 49, Issue 1 (March 2010)
pages 26-42
DOI: 10.1111/j.1545-5300.2010.01306.x

Gina Miranda Samuels, Associate Professor
School of Social Service Administration
University of Chicago

This study uses the case of transracially adopted multiracial adults to highlight an alternative family context and thus process of African American enculturation. Interpretive analyses of interviews with 25 adult multiracial adoptees produced 4 patterns in their bicultural identity formation: (1) claiming whiteness culturally but not racially, (2) learning to “be Black”—peers as agents of enculturation, (3) biological pathways to authentic Black kinship, and (4) bicultural kinship beyond Black and White. Conceptualizing race as an ascribed extended kinship network and using notions of “groundedness” from bicultural identity literature, the relational aspects of participants’ identity development are highlighted. Culturally relevant concepts of bicultural identity are proposed for practice with multiracial adoptees who have multiple cultures of origin and for whom White mainstream culture is transmitted intrafamilially as a first culture.

Read the entire article here.

Tags: , , , ,