Over One-Third of Americans Have Considered Adopting
Personal Experience with Adoption Associated with a More Favorable View of Adoption
- Almost three-quarters of full supporters of adoption have a personal connection to adoption, compared with less than half of marginal supporters.[2]
For Plurality of Americans, the Main Source of Information About Adoption is Family and Friends
- The main source of information about adoption for 45% of Americans is their family or friends, followed by the news (30%), books and magazines (16%) and movies and entertainment (6%).
- Full supporters are more likely to get information from family and friends, in contrast to marginal supporters who are more likely to get their information from the news.
How Americans View Adoption
Most Americans Have a Favorable Opinion of Adoption
Americans Overwhelmingly Think Adoption Serves a Useful Purpose in Our Society
How Americans View the Triad
Most Americans Have a Positive View of Adoptive Parents' Relationships with Adopted Children
- Over three quarters of Americans believe parents get the same amount of satisfaction or more from raising an adopted child as raising a child born to them.
- Over two-thirds of Americans believe that it is very likely that adopted children love their adoptive parents as much as they would have loved their birth parents.
- Over three-quarters of Americans believe it is as easy to love an adopted child as it is to love a biological child. A sizable minority believe that it is sometimes harder to love an adopted child because the child is not their flesh and blood.
Most Approve of Decision to Place a Child for Adoption
A majority of Americans have positive opinions about birth parents who place a child for adoption.[3] Seven in ten say they generally approve of a birth mother's decision.[4]
Americans are Divided on Adopted Children's Likelihood of Adjustment Problems
Most Americans have a positive view of adopted children, and a solid majority view them as well adjusted (76%) and secure (68%). However, people are divided as to whether adopted children are more or less likely than other children to have problems at school or with behavior.
Americans believe adopted children are more or less likely than other children to have
Americans Are Less Optimistic about the Prospects of Children Adopted from Other Countries
Half of respondents believe children adopted internationally are more likely than children adopted domestically to have emotional problems and less likely to be physically healthy. But, nearly half of Americans believe internationally adopted children are less likely to do poorly in school than adopted children born in this country.
Americans think children adopted from foreign countries are more or less likely than children adopted in this country to
Only Modest Public Support for Open Adoptions and Search
Open adoption-in which the birth and adoptive families maintain some contact with each other-has become more commonplace in the United States. Still, the public only modestly supports the practice.
Americans believe open adoption is a good idea in
The public also holds mixed views about the consequences of adoptees searching for and finding their birth parents. Most respondents believe that adoptees and birth parents benefit from contact, while fewer think adoptive parents do.
Is searching for birth parents usually good or bad for
