跨国领养:失依儿童家庭养育的另一种模式——以美国家庭领养中国儿童为例

Intercountry Adoption-A Model for Raising Abandoned Children in Family Settings——A study on American families with children adopted from China

自1992年中国实施《收养法》以来,已有60,000多名中国失依儿童被跨国领养到美国家庭。美国人跨国领养的主要动机是不能养育和博爱。领养是通过被中国政府认可的、在美国的中国儿童收养中心办理的,经过家庭组配和中国实地认养来完成。家庭养育的主要任务是改善健康状况,认同文化差异,帮助被领养儿童进行身份认同和自我认知。被领养儿童在美国适应良好,但也存在一些障碍。建议加强社会工作实务、社会工作专业教育、培训和相关研究,为领养家庭提供服务。

Since the implementation of the Adoption Law in 1992 in China, more than 60,000 Chinese children abandoned by their birth parents have been adopted into American families. Infertility and benevolence are the two major reasons for this intercountry adoption phenomenon. The American parents need to go through applying, child-matching and traveling-to-China-for-the-baby to complete their intercountry adoption. While the major tasks for the adoptive parents are to improve the physical conditions of their adopted children, recognize the differences within the adoptive family, expose their children to Chinese culture and help them to develop a positive self-identity and self-awareness, the adopted children usually experience the development of close attachment to their adoptive parents, the awareness of differences between themselves and the others in both family and society, the pain of loss of birth parents, the eager for searching for their birth parents and an early development of self-identity. In general, adopted Chinese children in this study have very well adapted to American family and society. knowledge about this group of children and their adoptive family should be taught in social work education programs and professional help to those families is needed.