Writing a Senior Thesis

Some of my friends who are thinking about writing theses next year have been asking me about what it's like to write a thesis. Here's what I think:

I hear lots of seniors complaining about their theses, and there is definitely culture that promotes complaining (or bragging?) about how much suffering goes into completing an honors thesis. I'm not sure if thesis-writers are truly so unhappy, or if it's just a way of building solidarity, or if people are just complaining because everyone else is.

I've accumulated dozens of books that I'm not looking forward to lugging back to the library and a huge stack of notes attempting to organize my thoughts.

I have no doubt succumbed to thesis-induced stress at times, but I LOVE writing a thesis.

• I get to devote myself to a topic that I am intensely curious and passionate about. I decide the direction my research goes and I can pursue what interests me.
• I work on my own schedule, at my own pace (bounded by the looming March 8th, 2012 deadline). No set class schedule or assignment due dates. (Note: this may be a drawback for some people, but I enjoy it.)
• I have the opportunity to develop a relationship with a renowned professor. There are few things cooler than seeing your own adviser being cited in books you're reading. (Yes, I realize how nerdy that sounds, and I'll embrace that...)
• I will have a finished product that I can point as the capstone of my Harvard experience. My thesis has been an opportunity for me to fuse my academic training with extracurricular interests, and see what emerges.

All that said, writing a thesis is hard work, but I'm loving the process 100%!!!!

Parents’ Socialization Strategies for Raising Chinese Adoptees

Parents’ socialization strategies face two central tensions:

• The tension between sameness and differentness within the family
• The tension between Chinese and American identities.

Richard Tessler (1999), a scholar of China to U.S. adoption, outlines four models of socialization. My research will investigate what factors influence parents' choice of socialization strategy. The four models are:

• Assimilation: focus on American culture (rejection differences)
• Acculturation: focus on Chinese culture (acknowledgement of differences)
• Alternation (or bi-cultural socialization): balance American and Chinese culture, with the goal of making children feel comfortable alternating between cultures (acknowledgement of differences)
• Child choice: parents allow the child to decide which strategy to pursue (My research will not address the child choice model, as I believe that even if the parents want their child to lead the way in identity formation, the parents’ actions and attitudes exert huge influence on the child’s choice.)

Assimilation

In the past, the assimilationist model was most popular. Families rejected racial differences within the family and adopted a 'color-blind' approach, raising their adopted children as if they had been born into the family. Because most of these families are Caucasian Americans, their rejection of differences is virtually a rejection of Chinese culture. While these parents claim that race does not matter to them, denying their child’s racial and ethnic background can have serious repercussions. Most likely, these parents have good intentions and simply do not realize that “Race does matter and will matter to and shape the life of every child of color” (Steinberg and Hall, 2000, 295). Today many scholars and adoptive parents look to the cohort of adults who were adopted from Korea in the 1970s as a “cautionary tale.” Many of these adoptees are critical of their parents for neglecting to address race and Korean culture, which has led to the current rejection the ‘clean break model’ that calls for the adoptee to fully assimilate.

Acculturation or "Culture Keeping"

Today some members of the adoptive community have embraced acculturation, or “culture keeping.” The term “culture keeping” was introduced by Jacobson (1998): “Culture keeping is meant to replicate partially the cultural education internationally adopted children would receive if they were being raised within a family of their own ethnic heritage” (ibid, 2). Many parents are unable to fully engage in culture keeping because they lack knowledge of and experience with Chinese culture. For some, it may also be too time-consuming or difficult to access resources and opportunities to engage in Chinese culture.

Bi-Cultural Socialization

Other parents reject both assimilation and acculturation in favor of Tessler’s bi-cultural socialization model. Tessler is a proponent of bi-cultural socialization: American socialization allows the child to share the culture of their adoptive family and be accepted by their peers; Chinese socialization is important because the child is phenotypically a minority, and thus may be treated by others as a minority. Bi-cultural socialization will help foster a positive esteem of their ethnic subgroup, which will empower children to handle racism with confidence. However, bi-cultural socialization (like culture keeping) can be difficult and requires commitment from adoptive parents, who often have little knowledge of Chinese heritage and may lack opportunities for exposing their children to Chinese culture.

‘Normal’ Ethnic and Racial Identity Development

Before delving into a discussion about racial and ethnic identity formation, it is crucial to distinguish between race and ethnicity.

• Both are socially constructed categories.
• Although there is not a way to biologically distinguish between races, a racial categories are made based on "perceived common physical characteristics that are held to be inherent” (Cornell, 2007, 25).
• Ethnicity is defined by perceived common ancestry and shared history, symbols, and practices.
• My research will focus on ethnicity and ethnic identity, but race plays a prominent role in both.

Now... on to identity formation! Identity construction takes place largely in adolescence, and is an ongoing, dynamic process (Smith and Howard, 1999; Phinney, 1987). Below is a rough sketch of the stages of ethnic identity formation that children ordinarily move through:

• Developmentally, children first become aware of ethnic differences at a very young age.
• However, children “initially learn from others what [ethnic] group they belong to” (Phinney, 1987, 15). Thus parental socialization strategies play a crucial role in the nascent stages of ethnic identity formation.
• When the child enters adolescence, he or she has acquired the cognitive capacity to process and interpret ethnic stimuli and assert their own ethnic self-identification (Phinney, 1987).

Identity formation of children adopted from China deviates from this 'normal' developmental model because they must incorporate being adopted into their identity, as well. Furthermore, Chinese adoptees’ who are adopted transracially must cope with an additional "layer of difference" (i.e. being a different race than their parents). Parents’ method of negotiating the layers of differences within the family can have profound implications for transracial adoptees’ ethnic identity formation.

Because the adolescent years are a crucial time for identity formation, one’s family and caretakers during his or her youth have a huge impact on their identity formation.

• By fostering open communication about adoption and identity, parents can facilitate identity achievement (Smith and Howard, 1999).
• Furthermore, studies have indicated that "parental sensitivity to race or culture, respect for the child’s cultural heritage, living in integrated areas, and exposing the child to positive aspects of his or her heritage are important in promoting positive self-image and adjustment” (ibid, 171).
• While parents can aid in identity achievement, they can also put up barriers for the child, even if it is done inadvertently. Smith and Howard assert that if the family “is conflicted or negative about adoption or child’s birth family, the child has a harder time coming to a healthy resolution of identity issues” (ibid, 168).

Overview of China Adoption

Most readers are likely to be familiar with adoption from China (in fact, many of you have firsthand experience that I lack, so please leave comments if I have made any mistakes or left out crucial information!), but I'd like to provide a bit of background information for those of you who aren't.

Why Adopt?

Some families adopt due to infertility. Others, though, choose to adopt for a wide variety of reasons, including humanitarian population growth concerns. (When parents are able to have biological children but choose to adopt, these adoptions are called 'preferential adoptions.')

Why Adopt From China?

Some parents said that they wanted to avoid adopting domestically because the children from public adoption processes were generally older, and babies from private adoptions are sometimes reclaimed by their birth parents. The desire to avoid the return of birth parents pushed some families to turn abroad for adoption. Many parents indicated that they wanted to adopt from China because they had a desire for a daughter and/or interest in Chinese culture. Other parents said that they chose to adopt from China because China's process was known to be faster than most and the babies were healthier than those from other international adoption programs.

Adoption Statistics and Logistics

Data obtained from http://www.adoptivefamilies.com/china_adoption.php

The number of adoptions from China peaked in 2005, with 7,906 adoptions that year. In 2009 the annual number of adoptions dropped significantly but remained quite high at 3,001 adoptions.

Children adopted from China are predominantly female (in 2006, 91% of adoptees were girls), and young (in 2006, 44% were under 1 year of age and only 4% were over 4 years of age).

The adoption process is quite lengthy and expensive; parents may wait for years, and it can cost over $20,000. Furthermore, China's requirements for adoptive parents have tightened in recent years. Single parents are no longer eligible to adopt, and both spouses must have a high school diploma. China has implemented further restrictions related to health, legal history, and income, as well.

A few months after parents receive the referral for the child they will adopt, they must travel to China to bring their child home. Most parents travel with an adoption group and stay in China for 10-14 days, receiving a US visa for their new child at the consulate in Ghuanzhou. In many cases, members of these travel groups stay in contact and serve as a support system for one another in the United States.

Welcome!

My name is Alexa and I am studying Sociology and Global Health/Health Policy at Harvard. I'm writing my senior honors thesis on ethnic identity formation in children adopted from China. I'll be using this blog to document my progress and share my research leading up to the publishing of my thesis in March, 2012.

Why did I choose this topic?

I have always had an interest in China, and spent the summer after my freshman year volunteering at an orphanage in Luoyang, China. I lived at the orphanage and ran daycare activities for toddlers and taught English to older children. The relationships I formed with these children had a very profound impact on me, and I knew I would want to do research on China to U.S. adoption.

After a series of email exchanges with parents who were waiting to adopt or had already adopted from the orphanage I worked at, I became fascinated with the post-adoption process of forming a new family. I was specifically interested in Chinese adoptees' racial and ethnic identity formation. Because most of these children are adopted into Caucasian families, they grow up not looking like their parents. As a mixed-race individual (I am half-Chinese and half-Caucasian), I share this experience of not really looking a lot like either of my parents. Furthermore, both transracial adoptees and mixed-race individuals often have to cope with a disconnect between how they feel racially/ethnically and how other people perceive and categorize them.

Interested in learning more?

I'll be posting more details about my research and its results, as well as discussions about existing literature related to my topic.

I'll be publicizing new posts on Twitter, so follow me: @AlexaIngStern