2005-07-06
Approximately 120,000 children are adopted each year in the US.
About 8 percent of adoptions are transracial.
1 million children in the United States live with adoptive parents
2 to 4 percent of American families include an adopted child.
60 percent of Americans have had personal experience with adoption.
Most adoptive parents are two parent families aged 31 to 40.
Most parents attended or completed college.
Nearly two-thirds of adoptive families earn $50,000 per year or more.
2 percent of unmarried women at any age place their child for adoption.
Women who place their child for adoption often come from higher socioeconomic backgrounds. They have higher educational aspirations, are more likely to finish school, and less likely to live in poverty and receive public assistance than mothers who keep their children.
Women who place their child for adoption delay marriage longer are more likely to marry eventually, and are less likely to divorce. They are no more likely to suffer negative psychological consequences, such as depression, than are mothers who rear children as single parents.
Women whose mothers completed at least one year of college were 3 times more likely to place their babies for adoption than women whose mothers did not complete high school.
Californian birth mothers who place their children independently tend to be aged 17 to 30 years old.
51 percent of teens that become pregnant give birth; 35 percent seek abortions; 14 percent miscarry; and fewer than 1 percent choose to place their children for adoption.
Adopted children do as well as or better than their non-adopted counterparts.
Adopted children score higher than their middle-class counterparts on indicators of school performance, social competency, optimism, and volunteerism.
7 percent of children adopted in infancy repeated a grade while 12 percent of children living with both biological parents repeated a grade.
Compared with the general child population, children placed with adoptive couples are better off economically.
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