Ethnic identity development of internationally adopted children and adolescents: implications for family therapists.

The life story of the internationally adopted child tends to be an emotional one. How the story is told and retold in the family can have lasting consequences for the child's adjustment and well-being. In telling the story, parents are faced with a unique challenge: To what extent is it desirable to encourage their children, who already struggle with identity issues related to adoption, to identify with their cultures of origin? Therapists working on these issues with multiethnic adoptive families can find little guidance in the family systems literature. To fill this gap, the present article reviews the literature on racial/ethnic identity development and the available research on ethnic identification, self-esteem, and the psychological adjustment of cross-ethnically adopted children and adolescents. Implications for practice include developmental considerations, identifying children and families at risk, and recommendations for those in need of intervention.