Journal of Student Research 2010

151

Parental Assimilation of Internationally Adopted Children

be associated with the social norms of current U.S. culture. For the variable (CIN), the majority of participants agreed or strongly agreed that they had integrated their child’s country and culture of origin into their daily lives. For variable (TIV), the majority of participants agreed that it would be important to share their child’s adoptive history with his or her teacher. For variable (CII), the majority of participants were undecided or disagreed as to whether they felt it was important to share their child’s adoptive history with his or her classmates. The researchers discussed possibilities as to why participants were undecided. One possibility is that parents may be sensitive to their child being recognized as different from their peers. For variable (SSF), results ranged from “agree” to “disagree,” with the majority of participants disagreeing that they had received useful cultural resources from their adoption agencies to help facilitate their child’s connection to his/her culture of origin (refer to Table 1 for Frequency Distribution Analysis and Table 2 for Mean Comparisons). Table 1 Frequency Distribution SD D U A SA Total CPT 11.0% 0.0% 11.0% 44.0% 33.0% 100.0% SIV 11.0% 11.0% 0.0% 67.0% 11.0% 100.0% CMD 0.0% 0.0% 22.0% 56.0% 22.0% 100.0% COM 0.0% 0.0% 11.0% 67.0% 22.0% 100.0% CNS 0.0% 0.0% 33.0% 67.0% 0.0% 100.0% SON 0.0% 0.0% 0.0% 89.0% 11.0% 100.0% CIN 0.0% 22.0% 11.0% 56.0% 11.0% 100.0% TIV 11.0% 11.0% 11.0% 56.0% 11.0% 100.0% CII 11.0% 33.0% 33.0% 22.0% 0.0% 100.0% SSF 0.0% 56.0% 11.0% 33.0% 0.0% 100.0% Note . (CPT)=Participation in at least one cultural event in past year; (SIV)=Participation in post-adoption support groups; (CMD)=Confidence in talking about potential discrimination; (COM)=Confidence in teaching coping methods for potential discrimination; (CNS)=Education surrounding cultural norms; (SON)=Importance of association with U.S. culture; (CIN)=Integration of child’s culture; (TIV)=Importance of sharing adoptive history with teacher; (CII)=Importance of sharing adoptive history with classmates; (SSF)=Received useful resources from agency.