Adoption Stigma Research Paper

Is Adoption still stigmatized? Adoption has grown to be more popular than it once was a half a century ago. Very few families adopted children years ago because of the stigma that was attached to it for all members of the adoption triad. Today in every magazine there are photos of celebrities with their adopted children going about their daily lives. Adoption is understood and accepted by the majority of people in America. Surveys show that most adoptions do end up working out well. One might then expect that adoption would no longer bear nearly so much of a stigma than it had, when all three members of the triad, “the unwed mother, the bastard child, and the barren couple,” were often made to feel embarrassment and even shame (Brown, 1992). There are different stigmas pertaining to each member in the triad. Depending on how one defines stigma, sets whether or not they have one toward adoption. The more broad definitions would point out that there are fewer stigmas, for example, an adoptee will not face discrimination when it comes to employment. Link and Phelan (2001) offer a more limited definition that is useful in the evaluation of an adoption. The definition is a social identity
I think that the stigmas lessen when outsiders have been exposed to all members of the triad and they are educated on the topic. With stigma it’s difficult to find positives that come along with it, many of the articles only focus on the negative effects and the negative views that people associate with adoption even though a majority of adoptions do work out well. I personally do not think bonds have anything to do with being blood related or not. A bond grows over time and depends on the people. Though the stigmas behind all three members of the triad are not as extreme as they once were, they do still