Adoption as a Family Form

Abstract Adoption creates a family that, in important ways, differs from the traditional biologically related nuclear family. As a family form, adoption, according to Bartholet (1993), “creates a family that is connected to another family, the birth family, and often to different cultures and to different racial, ethnic, and national groups as well” (p. 186). Adoption as a family form is also an institution in transition. The trend toward more openness in adoption, the increase in international, interracial, and special needs adoption, and the rising number of stepparent, single parent, and gay-lesbian adoptive families has generated an awareness that current perspectives on how adoption is conceptualized and how adoption practice is approached need to be reexamined.