• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.8 no.12
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• pp.357-365
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• 2008

The Korean Government is enforcing policies to activate domestic adoption in order to guarantee and protect stable family lives of children requiring protection. We surveyed recognitions and attitudes toward adoption and adoption policies of Daejeon citizens. The result will be important information for activating domestic adoption. We could find that motives of adoption centered on adopted children rather than adoptive parents. Especially, the recognition level toward open adoption is high, which shows that the domestic adoption can be activated if multiple political supports are provided for adopted children and adoptive families.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Child Welfare
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• no.54
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• pp.45-77
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• 2016

This study is a policy research conducted for the purpose of finding new roles for adoption agencies and suggesting future tasks for effective adoption practice in Korea. To achieve this goal, this study analyzed the characteristics of adoption practices and the roles of adoption agencies in four countries (U.K., Sweden, U.S.A. and Hong Kong) and conducted a survey of the staff members of adoption agencies in Korea. The survey questions included: (1) the real changes and problems they feel in the adoption field after the amendment to the 'Act on special cases concerning adoption' in 2012; (2) the prospects for change in the future; and (3) the new roles they expect in the changing context. Based on the review of foreign cases and the results of the survey, the future direction of adoption practice in Korea and the new roles and tasks of adoption agencies were suggested.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.47-68
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to provide information on adoptive families and obtain the basis data for adoption-related programs that are useful to adoptive families by examining their experiences in the adoption process, post-adoption adaptation, and adoption programs. For the study, in-depth interviews were conducted on six mothers who publicly adopted elementary school children and had expressed high satisfaction with adopted families and their willingness to participate in this research voluntarily. The main results exhibited parents' happiness post-adoption along with positive changes, such as internal growth, marital love growth, favorable response from others, and child's unexpected responses to adoption. However, open adoption mothers have coped with efforts to sympathize with and accept their children's feelings as they suffer from adoption, and with active support from their spouses, parents, and their own children. Open adoption mothers participated in various adoption-related programs, support, and voluntary self-help groups provided by adoption agencies or public organizations, and above all, their experience in self-help groups and peer groups of adopted children was found to be very useful. Based on these main results, we suggested strengthening welfare services for open adoption families, implementing education to better understand adoption, education for school teachers, students, and welfare staff, providing practical programs for adoptive families, and promoting self-help groups.

• Korean Journal of Family Social Work
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• no.23
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• pp.71-102
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• 2008

The purpose of this study was to understand the meaning of being adopted that adopted children have experienced. To achieve this purpose, researchers contacted adopted children and adoptive parents, collected data through in-depth interview and document, and analysed these data using case study approach. 23 adopted children over three ages and their parents were interviewed for this study. Participants were classified into three groups(3~5 ages, 6 ages, over 7 ages) based on their age. Researchers investigated the changes of the meaning of being adopted by age. The major findings were follows: First, the meaning of being adopted that adopted children have experienced was changed from 6 ages. Second, this study analyzed that the meaning of being adopted was love born by heart at 3~5 ages, inevitable grief at 6 ages and first step of adoptive person over 7 ages. Based on the findings, this study suggested practice guidelines to help adoptive children and their family.

• Journal of the Korean Geographical Society
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• v.30 no.4
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• pp.411-428
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• 1995

Intercountry adoption, one type of forced migration, has increased significantly in recent decades. The adoption of Korea-born children by Americans has been the strongest intercountry adoption linkage in the world. The intercountry adoption stream was strongly influenced by intercountry adoption policies, and socio-cultural settings in both South Korea and the United States. Socio-cultural factors in South Korea made local adoption undesirable and helped for abandoned children to be adopted by Americans, while socio-cultural factors in the United States had reduced the number of locally available infants for adoption, and increased the demand for infants from abroad. Distribution of Korea-born adoptees shows concentration in the Pacific Northwest, Upper Midwest and Northeast areas which have not attracted Korean immigrants so generally. The trend of concentration shows some increased importances in the outlying states in the northern United States. The location and activity of agencies shaped the spatial distribution of Korea-born adoptees in the United States.

• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.695-711
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• 2007

Research on intercountry adoption was strongly needed in Korea; however, there were only a few research in geography on the United States. It is hard to find the geographical research on Korea-born adoptees in Europe. This research analyzed spatial distribution of Korea-born adoptees in Europe where adopted the largest number of Koreans after the United States. Since 1956 when Korea-born children were first adopted in Norway, the number of adoptees had increased rapidly until 1978. In the early 1970s, Korean children had adopted more in Europe than the Unites States. Even though the number of intercountry adoptees temporarily decreased after the Seoul Olympic in 1988, Korean children have been still adopted at a settled numbers. In the beginning period (1956$\sim$70) of adoption in Europe, the Korean war orphans and abandoned children were adopted by Sweden, Norway and Belgium. In the second period (1971$\sim$90), the number of Korean adoptees were social orphans as a result of rapid industrialization. The number of adoptees increased rapidly and their destination extended into ten countries including the Western Europe such as France, Germany, Italy and United Kingdom. In the third period after 1991, the adoptees were mainly from unmarried mothers. The number of adoptees decreased as the result of that the Korean government attempted to reduce the intercountry adoption and to increase the domestic adoption. Their destination reduced into Northern European countries, France and Luxemburg. Those countries kept adopting settled number of Korean children. Female Korean adoptees used to outnumber male Korean adoptees; however the sex ratio was reversed recently. The age of adoptees became to lower, so most of Korea-born adoptees were under one-year old.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.65 no.1
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• pp.83-107
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to understand the life experiences of an adult adoptee. For this purpose, the data were collected through in-depth interviews with an adult adoptee, observation, and documents and analyzed using life history approach. Results of analysis were composed of summarized life history, thick description of life history, theme analysis, and issues for intervention. The themes generated from analysis are 'a slub', 'a larva that want to be a butterfly', 'I am okay. No, I am not okay', 'because it is not my fault', 'love, the critical determinant leading my life'. Researchers, also, examined intervention issues of adoption, post-adoption service, closed adoption or open adoption, searching root, intervention for adult adoptee. Based on the results of this study, the policies and practical guidelines for adult adoptees were suggested.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare
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• v.69 no.3
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• pp.141-164
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• 2017

The purpose of this study is to understand the school achievement of domestic adopted children in Korea and its related factors. Although the developmental outcomes of domestic adopted children were the focus of research interests, their school achievement has never been fully addressed in Korea. The subsample (9-17 years old) of 5th wave data of was used for the analysis. The results showed that the school achievement level of domestic adopted children was not significantly different from their non-adopted peers during elementary school years except the mathematics, but changed drastically after they entered the middle school, showing significantly lower level from their non-adopted peers. Factors related with the overall school achievement were the level of school, maternal education, age at adoption, child's self-esteem and school adjustment. For specific subject, however, significant factors were found to be somewhat different. Based on the results of the study, the practical guidelines to improve the school achievement of adopted children were suggested. Also, suggestions for the following studies were made.

• Journal of Family Resource Management and Policy Review
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.1-17
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• 2022

This study provides a critical analysis of the Family Center's programs for adoptive families by interviewing employees at these centers and at Adoption Agencies who have experiences with adoption programs. For this study, nine such workers from three separate Family Centers and three such workers from two separate Adoption Agencies have (voluntarily) engaged in in-depth interviews. Major findings from the interviews are that the Family Centers were initially motivated to carry out adoption family programs for three principal reasons: they located many families (in need of adoption family program); potential adoptees were interested in the program; adoption families participated in the pre-existing programs such as Self-help Group and Co-parenting Space. Workers in the study also reported that they approach to an adoption family and their contemplation on ways to provide better services to the adoption families. They don't have any official and formal manual or guidelines from the Government Ministries and offices such as Korean Institute for Healthy Family; as a result, the workers at Family Centers have endeavored to gain connection with Adoption Agencies in hopes of cooperation with them and to improve the services at Family Centers. For benefits of Family Centers as a delivery system, they mentioned nationwide infrastructure, family professional, and arrangement of integrated program for family. For improvements, they listed awareness education based on a thorough consideration of adoptee's varied characteristics, close cooperation with adoption institutions, provision of basic operational manual from Korean Institute for Healthy Family, and governmental efforts to enlarge the consideration pool for families.

• Korean Journal of Social Welfare Studies
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• v.42 no.1
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• pp.399-432
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• 2011

The purpose of this study is to understand the adjustment process of families adopting an older child, and to generate a substantial theory. To achieve this purpose, we conducted in-depth interviews with mothers adopting an older child and analyzed data with qualitative analysis approach. From the analysis, theoretical model has been made, and the model includes the adoptive families' diverse experiences, barriers to adjustment as well as resources and strategies that they mobilized and used for smooth adjustment. Their experiences in the process of adjustment consisted of five phases: unfamiliar meeting, shock, fighting alone without support, control, and stability. Barriers to adjustment process were composed of adoptees' problem behaviors, loss of time, lack of preparation, lack of experiences, repetition of the vicious circle, withstanding alone, improper resources, lack of support, and being criticized. Resources and strategies that families adopting an older child utilized were individual resources and ability such as rearing experiences, intellectual ability, willingness, belief, and perspective change; family system such as spouse and other offsprings; informal support system such as extended families, relatives, friends, neighbors, and other families adopting an older child; formal resources such as adoption workers and helping professionals. From our results, we suggested policy and practice guidelines to help adjustment experiences for families adopting an older child.