Name Reclamation for Transracial Korean Adoptee Returnees in the United States and Europe

Navigating puberty, identity, and race among transnationally, transracially adopted Korean American adolescents

“…Prior research indicated that adopted Koreans reported lower scores on ethnic‐racial identity when measured unidimensionally, compared to non‐adopted Korean Americans (Lee et al, 2010). While adopted Korean Americans are not homogenous in how they do or do not connect with their ethnic‐racial identity (see Beaupre et al, 2015), empirical studies have consistently found that adopted Koreans have reported a sense of discomfort or detachment from their ethnic‐racial heritage (Godon‐Decoteau et al, 2018; Kim et al, 2017; Marcelli et al, 2020; Meier, 1999; Reynolds et al, 2021). Given the complexities of ethnic‐racial identity formation among adopted Koreans, it is important to understand how this process relates to other developmental tasks.…”

“…The opening quote illustrates that these attitudes extend to negative body image, such as embarrassment about Asian physical features (e.g., skin tone, eye shape; Lee & Miller, 2009) and a desire for White physical features (McGinnis et al, 2009; Meier, 1999). For instance, in describing her discomfort with her racial physical appearance, an adopted Korean participant said, “I used to scribble my eyes out in photos, and I did everything I could to de‐Asian myself… I was never comfortable in my skin” (Reynolds et al, 2021, p. 19). Another adopted Korean woman described wanting to blend in with her White surroundings: “I didn't want to [sic] people to notice that I wasn't White” (Docan‐Morgan, 2011, p. 347).…”

Proximity to whiteness: Transracial Korean and Chinese American adoptees navigating discussions about racism and intersectionality with White adoptive parents.

“…While Asian children raised with biological Asian families may not be prepared for the racism they will experience outside the home, they may be provided with varying degrees of racial, ethnic, and cultural socialization in ways that transracial adoptees would not (see Reynolds et al, 2021;Reynolds & Wing, 2020). They may also have ethnic forenames and/or surnames (Reynolds et al, , 2022, access to Asian representation and role models in their lives, receive some degree of language acquisition, and in general, follow a different path to identity development without the cultural and racial erasure that many transracial adoptees experience being raised in White families and communities (Eng & Han, 2019). All individuals of Asian descent are at heightened risk of experiencing racial microaggressions in everyday life (D. W. Sue et al, 2007), although transracially adopted Asian children are also at risk of experiencing adoption microaggressions (Baden, 2016) and adoption name microaggressions .…”