Americans have conflicting feelings about adoption, supporting it in general but harboring misgivings when asked about the details of forming a non-biological family, an adoption group said Wednesday.
Half of those surveyed by the New York-based Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute say adopting a child is not quite as good as having a child of one's own. And one in four say it is sometimes harder to love an adopted child."It's very important for us to understand this if we want to move forward to make sure that all of the children in this country who are waiting for adoptive families actually find them," said Madeline Freundlich, executive director of the private research group.
Freundlich noted that 90 percent say they have a very or somewhat favorable view of adoption. At the same time, they have concerns.
"Once you dig a little bit deeper and ask more probing questions about adoption, people really have very mixed feelings," she said.
The poll found nearly six in 10 Americans had a friend or family member involved with an adoption, and these people were much more likely to fully support adoption than those without personal experience.
It also found:
- About one-third fully support adoption, one-third have some hesitancy and about one-third are only marginally supportive.
- Half believe adoption is better than being childless but not quite as good as having one's own child.
- Two-thirds say it is very likely that adopted children will love their adoptive parents as much as they would have loved their birth parents. But one-quarter say it's only somewhat likely and 5 percent say it's unlikely.
- Attitudes do not differ by age, family size or political leanings.
- Men, blacks and less-educated Americans are less likely to support adoption than women, whites and college graduates.
- Just 16 percent say open adoptions, where the adoptive and birth parents meet and the families stay in touch, are good in most cases; 40 percent say they are a good idea in some cases, but 19 percent say they are never a good idea.