Sociodemographic Influences in the Prediction of Attitudes toward Transracial Adoption

Abstract

An exploratory study of attitudes toward transracial adoption was conducted, using data from a 1991 national telephone opinion survey of 916 respondents. Seventy-one percent of those surveyed believed that race should not be a factor in who should be allowed to adopt a child. However, in a logistic regression analysis, respondents in the highest age category (i.e., those older than 64 years) were 63% less likely to approve of transracial adoption, compared with 18- to 29-year-olds. There was also an interaction of race and sex. African-American women were 84% less likely than African-American men to approve of transracial adoption. Compared with African-American men, Caucasian men were 72% less likely to approve. The importance of considering subpopulation differences in applying such findings to adoption policy, research, and practice is discussed.