The Korean Adoption Project is a longitudinal study of the experiences of transnationally adopted Koreans and their adoptive families. For a summary of some of our findings see Kim & Lee (2020).
2007 - We surveyed over 500 adoptive parents with Korean adoptee children between the ages of 5-18 years old. We also surveyed over XXX Korean adoptee adolescents between the ages of 13-18 years old from these families. The first wave focused on understanding how the adopted individuals and their adoptive parents navigated adjustment and well-being, identity and discrimination, cultural socialization, and family - birth and adoptive.
2014 - We conducted a follow-up survey of adoptive parents whose Korean adoptee children were between the ages of 5-12 years old in 2007 and were now adolescents. Similar to 2007, we also surveyed over XXX Korean adoptees from these families who were now adolescents.
2019 - We attempted to track down all the original adoptive families (adoptive parents and adoptees) from the 2007 survey study to conduct a second follow-up study. Because we could not directly contact adoptees as they were now adults who needed to consent to research, we primarily recruited adoptees through their adoptive parents. To ensure we had a sufficient sample size, we also recruited new Korean adoptee participants. Now that all of the adopted participants were adults, our focus shifted to address more issues pertinent to adulthood including peers and complex family relationships.
Moving forward, the Korean Adoption Project will continue to examine the experiences of the original Korean adoptees and their families, as well as incorporating other adult Korean adoptees to create a larger, more representative study.
Presently, we are ramping up for a fourth wave of data collection in which Korean adoptee participants who were adolescents at the first wave will be in their mid thirties.
Key findings include:
Cultural Socialization
Cultural socialization is the process through which individuals convey cultural practices, values, and a positive sense of self. Cultural socialization is typically studied as being conveyed from parents to their children, but recent work has started to recognize the role of others as cultural socialization agents (e.g., peers).
Based on the Korean Adoption Project, we found…
- Parental cultural socialization in childhood shapes ethnic-racial identity in adolescence (Hu et al., 2017)
- Parental cultural socialization in childhood informs the amount of peer cultural socialization and ethnic-racial identity in adolescence (Hu et al., 2017)
- Parental (mother) report of cultural socialization and adolescent report of cultural socialization differed (Hu et al., 2015)
For further reading:
Hu, A. W., Anderson, K. N., & Lee, R. M. (2015). Let’s talk about race and ethnicity: Cultural socialization, parenting quality, and ethnic identity development. Family Science, 6(1), 87-93. doi.org/10.1080/19424620.2015.1081007
Hu, A. W., Zhou, X., & Lee, R. M. (2017). Ethnic socialization and ethnic identity development among internationally adopted Korean American adolescents: A seven-year follow-up. Developmental Psychology, 53(11), 2066-2077. doi.org/10.1037/dev0000421
Discrimination
For further reading:
Lee, J. P., Lee, R. M., Hu, A. W., & Kim, O. M. (2015). Ethnic identity as a moderator against discrimination for transracially and transnationally adopted Korean American adolescents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 6(2), 154–163. doi.org/10.1037/a0038360
Simon, K. A., Sumontha, J., Blankenau, A., Domyancich-Lee, S., Farr, R. H., Kim, A. Y., & Lee, R. M. (2025). Adoptive parents’ racial colorblindness and adopted Korean adolescents’ experiences of discrimination. Cultural Diversity & Ethnic Minority Psychology, 31(3), 595–603. doi.org/10.1037/cdp0000695
Ethnic-Racial Identity
For further reading:
Lee, J. P., Lee, R. M., Hu, A. W., & Kim, O. M. (2015). Ethnic identity as a moderator against discrimination for transracially and transnationally adopted Korean American adolescents. Asian American Journal of Psychology, 6(2), 154–163. doi.org/10.1037/a0038360
Genetic Testing
For further reading:
Cai, J., Kim, A. Y., & Lee, R. M. (2020). Psychological correlates of interest in genetic testing among Korean American adoptees and their parents. Journal of Genetic Counseling, 29, 460-470. https://doi.org/10.1002/jgc4.1237