In “The Leavers” by Lisa Ko, the story is about a mother, Polly, and her son Deming. Early in the book, when Deming was 11, he was abandoned by his mother and Deming was put into foster care short after. He was adopted by a family that is considered to be relatively well off financially and they live in a safer part of town too. In a way, being adopted gave him a better living situation and an opportunity to have the support of a loving family that was willing to take him in as one of their own and try their best to support him with an education and career as he grows up under their care. Since this story involved adoption, I wanted to look into the statistics behind adoptions and how the overall experience of adoption has worked with other families who have used the foster care system.
The research I found is in a research brief from the US Department of Health and Human Services, more specifically, the Office of The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (or ASPE). This research brief covers a 2007 study from the National Survey of Adoptive Parents (NSAP) and National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH) about adoption. NSAP found that “86% of parents had a motivating factor of wanting to provide a permanent home for a child” (NSAP), and that 75% of the families surveyed claimed that their parent-child relationship was “very warm and close” (NSAP). This research tells me that most families have been happy to help provide a child a permanent home and that they were able to develop a close and loving relationship with the child after adoption. I hope for the sake of the children, and the families seeking to help a child who needs a home that this percentage has gone up higher since the 2007 study and continues to trend upwards. On the bright side, this study found that overall, most children adopted from foster care were doing well with parents who are happy with the adoption. But there is still room for improvement, with 25% of parents who adopted a child not saying their relationship as “very warm and close” and a small percentage that would probably or definitely not adopt the child knowing what they know now (NSAP). Overall, the foster care system has helped many kids, like Deming in the book, and with the proper awareness and action, I believe we all can help to improve this statistic so that the foster care system helps more children be adopted into homes with loving families and grow to have a warm and close relationship with them in the process.
Works Cited
Great post! I really enjoyed this post, and it gave me a greater understanding of adoption. It gave me a greater understanding of the relation of most families and the children they adopt. Thanks to this post I can better relate to Deming and his experience in foster a foster home with the Wilkinson’s.
I appreciate this thorough context presentation. Previously, I was very unfamiliar with the adoption process and all of the different aspects of change that really affect the child and adoptive parents. The statistics included in this context presentation really highlight how adoptions were usually successful in 2007. I also believe this emphasizes how Deming, like many other adopted children, truly struggled to bond with their adoptive parents.
Hi there Adam. Very insightful post. I love the direction you took for your context presentation as I have never really looked into adoption and its stats. I would be very curious to see an updated study on adoption and see if those stats have increased over the past 10+ years. As far as Deming goes, you make a good point that he was given a home that could provide for him, I feel like we’ve really dove deep to unpack the many ways his adoptive-parents have hindered his life/ culture, but there are also a lot of ways we should admire his adoptive parents and be glad he was given a safe and structured home.
Hi, well done! I really enjoyed your post because it opened my mind up to both the positive and negative parent-children relationships of adoption. Of course, the goal would be for ever child and parent to havre a “very warm and close” relationship, however, sometimes that is not always possible. The stats of adoption in the 21st century definitely help me understand Deming’s background with adoption and provide me with another mindset that not all adoptive parents and children get along.
Hi! Thank you for supplying statistics surrounding adoption. I was pleased to see how the majority of families are joyous in their adoption. But, as you said, there are still some that are not. I wonder what could be implemented to improve these families’ experiences. Maybe there could be a better screening system for the parents and children before the adoption to ensure the child and parents are compatible.
Hello, I really enjoyed reading your post and the adoption statistics you provided. I find it very interesting, and slightly concerning, that 25% do not seem to have good relationships with their adoptive families, and even more so that a small percentage who would’ve have adopted knowing what they know now. It would be interesting to evaluate these negative claims further and see the circumstances of the situations, and whether contact with their birth families is still an option, as it was for Deming.
This is incredible work, this gave me a more in-depth understanding of the adoption process and how it worked to the current system over the years. Some of the information that is given really made me think more and some of the information I was not fully aware of; especially when it came to the percentage total throughout time and the work that is put in for each child to have a home, education, family, etc.
Great job on the presentation! It made me more aware on the topic of adoption. What really stood out to me was the stats about the child and parent relationship. You stated that around 75% of parents have a “very warm and close” relationship with their child. That may sound good, but if you look on the other side of things, this stat is saying that 25% of parents don’t have a good relationship level with their child. In my opinion, if you aren’t going to love and support the child that you are adopting 100%, then you shouldn’t even be thinking about adoption.
Nice post! I enjoyed reading through your post. I think it is a great introduction to our reading this week. Before reading your post, I knew very little about the adoption process or anything surrounding it. The research and statistics that you included really helped me gain a better understanding of how it all works. It definitely gave me a new point of view to see Deming’s situation through. Great post!
Great Context Presentation post! Your post is very well-written and thought through throughly. I have a much better understanding of the whole adoption process than I did before I read your post. I don’t know much about the statistics of adoption, but I now see the reasons why parents go through with putting their own child into the adoption system. Seeing such a high statistic for these children being placed into “very warm and close” families from the adoption process, warms my heart. Overall, great post!
Great post Adam! It was very enlightening to learn more about the adoption process and what the numbers also look like for kids trying to get adopted. Reading about Deming’s experience with adoption was also very interesting. His new parents gave him another chance at a better life, even if they did make mistakes along the way he was still able to become who he wanted to be. Adoption and kids in the system need more awareness around them because they also need a home just like all of us have and I’m glad you talked about that!
I really liked your post. I can definitely relate to this. And it is very relevant to the reading. One of the things I wanted to bring to your attention is different kinds of adoption. for instance closed versus open adoption. A lot of open adoptions have struggles in the home life, but that allows for the child to have contact with the biological parent with out restrictions. Now in my case it was not open. That affected my family life differently.
Hi! I thought your context presentation for this week was really interesting! I don’t really have much background on adoption or the process of it, but it is really great to hear that 75% of these families are close and have a true relationship with each other. I do agree and find it important to bring awareness of that 25% of the families that don’t feel this way. There can be improvement and I do really hope that the statistic of 25% has dropped. I really liked how you focused on the topic of adoption because this topic played a huge role in the “The Leavers”.
Thank you for sharing your post. Your post is very interesting and I like it very much. I think the issue of adoption is worth noting. However, the data shows that most of the adopted children live well for the rest of their lives, and the new adoptive families also have a sense of identity with these children. However, there are still a small number of children who do not feel close to the foster family in later life. Maybe it’s not just a problem with foster families, but this issue should be continuously paid attention to and improved.
Nice work Adam! It’s a really meaningful post and you showed lots of information about adoptive kids. I am really glad that most abandoned kids can find a new family. The community and new adoptive families are helping those kids to adapt to the new living environment and try to help them out from those bad experiences. I think that is really important to those kids since what they need are love and care. I believe that most abandoned kids will have a better future that living with a lovely adoptive family.
I really appreciated your post and the content that you brought in with the numerical facts about adoption and their familial connections with each other. I think that this was a very good topic because as a reader, it is sometimes hard to put ourselves in the shoes of the main character (Deming) and this information really helps put his emotions into perspective.
Thank you for the great presentation! Foster care is so important for those children in a bad family situation, and it is great to hear that the vast majority of families still feel great about adopting their kid. I wonder if the data has changed since your study mentioned, since there has been nearly 14 years since that data was accurate. This really helps visualize how the orphanage and foster care system is as a whole, and adds to Deming’s story. Thanks again!
Thank you for your post! I knew a little about adopted families before, since it is actually not so related to me, but after reading the book, I found that the problems on the adopted families should be regarded by the public. As you mentioned in your post, I am surprised that the happiness in adopted families is so high, and I think many original families would not have such high rate of happiness if there is a survey on such topic. I think it is very important to maintain and improve more on the project of adopted children, since they are so pathetic, and the society should give them more care and love.
Thank you for what you wrote! This was a conversation that I was having with a friend just a couple of days ago and wow do I wish I would have read some of these stats first. The points you brought up were so directly relatable its really crazy. The foster care system is something that is so heartbreaking to read about, and knowing what happens in Demings just adds to the emotion behind it. And I love the stats you brought up from the NSAP really amazing stuff!
Great post here! The system put in place is unbelievable to read about and I now see it in another way after reading this. One thing that really stood out to me is that one of the statistics were 75% of parents have a “very warm and close” relationship with their child, which is very good that majority of these relationships are good. It just makes me wonder what can be done so 25% of foster children aren’t in a situation where the don’t have a “very warm and close” relationship with their parents.