People Seeking to Child Adopt

by Child Welfare Information Gateway

Most Americans favor adoption, and many have at some point considered adoption. However, relatively few have taken concrete steps toward adopting a child, and fewer still have actually adopted a child. This factsheet examines some of the more recent statistics and trends regarding American adults who seek to adopt an infant or child.

How Many People Are Seeking to Adopt?

Over one-third of Americans have ever considered adopting, but no more than 2 percent of Americans have actually adopted. Somewhere between those percentages lies the number of people seeking to adopt-that is, those who have taken concrete steps to adopt a child.

Data from the 1995 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) included responses of more than 10,000 women who were interviewed about topics that included adoption. Analysis of the data led researchers to the following conclusions:

In 1995 there were nearly 10 million ever-married American women ages 18 to 44 who had ever considered adoption, and this number amounted to more than one-fourth (26.4 percent) of all ever-married women.

About 16 percent of those who had considered adoption (4 percent of the total of ever-married women), or 1.6 million women, had ever taken concrete steps toward adoption; this percentage may represent those seeking to adopt.

Only 31 percent of those who had taken concrete steps (1.3 percent of the total of ever-married women), or 487,000 women, had ever completed an adoption.

The graph below uses the responses of women in the NSFG to show the breakdown from those who considered adoption to those who took concrete steps to those who actually adopted.

Who Are the People Seeking To Adopt?

The 1995 NSFG also reported on the characteristics of the ever-married women ages 18 to 44. Having considered adoption, having taken steps toward adoption, and having actually adopted were more common among women who were older, who had never had children, who had some fertility impairment, and who had ever used fertility services. The study also showed that the prevalence of adoption increased with age, education, and income.

The characteristics of those who actually adopted also varied according to whether they adopted an unrelated child or a related child. The NSFG showed that adoption of an unrelated child was most common among childless women, those with fertility impairments, White women, and those with higher levels of income and education. The adoption of a related child was more common among Black families and families with low incomes and low levels of education.

The Harris survey of over 1,400 Americans found that the highest percentages of Americans who had considered adopting a child were those ages 35 to 54, married, and female. In contrast to the NSFG findings, Harris found that income and education were not factors in whether someone had considered adopting. The greatest difference between populations was between Hispanic and non-Hispanic respondents: Hispanic populations had a far greater likelihood of considering adoption than African-American or White populations.

Why Don't All Adoption Seekers Adopt?

All of these studies found a significant discrepancy in percentages between those who have considered adoption and those who actually adopted. The NSFG study also showed a discrepancy in percentages between those who took steps to adopt and those who actually adopted. The reasons for these discrepancies may be attributed, at least in part, to the types of children that prospective adoptive parents are seeking. While there are more than 118,000 children in public foster care awaiting adoption, potential adoptive parents are not always seeking to adopt from the foster care system.

The 2002 Harris survey focused on this question. Public foster care includes a disproportionate number of children of color and many older children, as well children in sibling groups and children who have experiences of neglect or abuse. Those polled in the Harris survey indicated they would be more willing to adopt older children and children of different races. However, they expressed concern about adopting children with health or behavioral problems. Additional concerns unrelated to the child's characteristics included whether the birth parents would try to regain custody and whether the costs of the adoption would be affordable.

What Are Some Trends in Adoption Seeking?

Several trends were observed by Chandra et al. (1999) from the 1995 NSFG data:

The percent of ever-married women who had ever adopted declined from 2.1 percent in 1973 to 1.3 percent in 1995.

At the same time that fewer women had ever adopted a child, an increasing proportion of those women had adopted stepchildren and children of relatives.

The demand for adoption appears to have remained stable over time. In 1988, NSFG reported that 204,000 were currently taking steps to adopt; in 1995 the number was 232,000. In 1988, 31 percent of those who had ever sought to adopt had actually adopted a child; in 1995, the figure was also 31 percent.

Adoption and adoption seeking were more prevalent among women who had never had children and women who had some fertility impairment, but there were many women without those characteristics who were seeking to adopt. The researchers conclude that the relationship between demand for adoption and infertility may be weakening, partly as a result of the increase in adoption of related children or stepchildren.

About the Author

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Formerly the National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information and the National Adoption Information Clearinghouse, Child Welfare Information Gateway provides access to information and resources to help protect children and strengthen families. A service of the Children's Bureau, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.