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South Korea experienced international scrutiny over its irregular intercountry adoption practices in the 1980s. However, it eventually came to be viewed as a model of transparent and efficient adoptions. This façade disguises an orphan adoption system that has become entrenched over the decades. Today, adoptees continue to lobby for their right to origins. This paper explores South Korea’s laws and policies, which nullified the rights of adoptees, and it calls for receiving countries to assume co-responsibility to restore these rights.
This seminar was given as part of the Korean Adoptee Adoption Research Network's inaugural seminar series, The Right to Know. Each speaker of the series discussed the concept of the right to origin and examined the broader social, legal and political implications in South Korea as a sending country along with experiences from North America and Europe as receiving countries.
Introduction
The number of children in need has declined over the years. The importance of foster home has grown as the demands for child care become increasingly characterized by high levels of specialization and diversification. Also, the demand for quality in child care has led to a social tendency toward smaller facilities. Against this background, Korea’s child welfare facilities, having long served as providers of out-of-home and alternative care for children in need under 18 years of age, have since around 2000 been facing the need to change their functions and…
Abstract
The purpose of this study was to longitudinally examine the effects of stigma on the development of children living in out-of-home care situations, specifically with regards to self-esteem and antisocial behavior. Using a stratified sampling method, data from 341 children aged 11 or 12 living in out-of-home care (residential institutions, group homes, and foster homes) were collected five times, from 2011 to 2015. The results of latent growth modeling (LGM) analyses were as follows. First, individuals demonstrated different levels of stigma at ages 11 or 12, and the levels of…
Abstract
In order to offer client-centered services, it is important to measure children’s service satisfaction and reflect their needs to out-of-home care practices and policies. However, a reliable measure that assesses children’s satisfaction about out-of-home care is not found in Korea. This study aimed to develop a Korean out-of-home care satisfaction scale. The study sample consisted of 484 children from institutional care, group homes, and foster homes in Korea. Half of the sample was chosen randomly for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on 16 items from the Korean Foster Care…
Abstract
For adopted individuals, understanding the role of birth family is an important part of developing a coherent life narrative. However, there is limited empirical research on this aspect of the adoption experience. We introduce a new construct, birth family thoughts, that captures a sense of curiosity about birth family, and describe the development of an accompanying brief self-report measure, the Birth Family Thoughts Scale (BFTS). Across 4 studies of transnationally adopted Korean American adolescents, emerging adults, and adults who were adopted before the…
Abstract
In order to offer client-centered services, it is important to measure children’s service satisfaction and reflect their needs to out-of-home care practices and policies. However, a reliable measure that assesses children’s satisfaction about out-of-home care is not found in Korea. This study aimed to develop a Korean out-of-home care satisfaction scale. The study sample consisted of 484 children from institutional care, group homes, and foster homes in Korea. Half of the sample was chosen randomly for exploratory factor analysis (EFA) based on 16 items from the Korean Foster Care…
Abstract
Objective : The purpose of this study is to confirm whether the effectiveness of the program is sustainable 9 months after project completion for the children and adolescents participating in a childcare and rehabilitation support project. Methods : This study was carried out in three phases: pre-(2016.5~6), post-(2016.10~12) and follow-up evaluation phases (2017.9) of 120 children and adolescents who participated in a treatment and rehabilitation of children project in 2016. The analysis was conducted using a repeated measures ANOVA to identify changes in problem behaviors.…
Abstract
Previous research has suggested that children and adolescents in residential care are at high risk of suicide. Empirical studies on this topic in South Korea, however, are scarce. Our objectives were to 1) examine the relative risk of suicide among children in residential care compared with those not in residential care, 2) evaluate how the relative risk of suicide is associated with age, and 3) explore the trend in relative risk of suicide over time. We used repeated cross-sectional survey data from nationally representative samples of 848,451 children aged 12 to 18 in South…
Abstract
International adoptees are highly heterogeneous in terms of their pre-adoption adversities and their post-adoption experiences, needs, and problems. The diversity among international adoptees poses a challenge related to adequately addressing their needs. The first aim of this study was to find subgroups of adult international adoptees based on common risk and protective factors using a latent class analysis. The second aim was to examine whether the identified subgroups differed in outcome variables such as life satisfaction …