Adoption Microaggressions Parents Need to Know About

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What are the microaggressions or stigmas in the world of adoption and how do they impact adoptees, birth parents, and adoptive parents?  We talk with Dr. Amanda Baden, a Professor and the Doctoral Program Director at Montclair State University in the graduate counseling program and a licensed psychologist in private practice in Manhattan. She is an adult adoptee from Hong Kong and an adoptive parent of a daughter from China.

In this episode, we cover:

• What are microaggessions in general and how do they apply to adoption? 
• These microaggressions apply to all members of the adoption kinship network (adoptees; adoptive parents, grandparents, siblings; first/birth parents/grandparents).
• Where do some of the unconscious attitudes and stigmas toward adoption come from? 
• Common microaggression themes for adoptees:
  • biology is best/normative is based upon the belief that biological ties are superior, more permanent, and more authentic than ties formed through adoption or foster care 
  • bad seed adoptees or damaged goods
  • grateful adoptees, a third theme, refers to the idea of adoptees as both lucky and privileged to have been adopted 
  • cultural limbo and invalidation of heritage 
• What are some of the microagressions against birth parents?
• What are some of the microaggressions against adoptive parents?
• Lack of intent to hurt.
• How can microsaggressions impact the mental health?

Danger of a Single Story by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them. Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building

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Support the show

Please leave us a rating or review. This podcast is produced by www.CreatingaFamily.org. We are a national non-profit with the mission to strengthen and inspire adoptive, foster & kinship parents and the professionals who support them.

Creating a Family brings you the following trauma-informed, expert-based content:

• Weekly podcasts
• Weekly articles/blog posts
• Resource pages on all aspects of family building