Local Issues #3 - Adoption of children from war-ridden areas of Africa

Ethiopian children “An Age to begin anew” 4/23/08 The Boston Globe

Recently there was an article in the Boston Globe regarding the, “adoption of children from war-ridden areas of Africa.”  For the children discussed, adoption by American families is a priceless opportunity to escape the dangers of war and conflict in their homeland.  Therefore, in many ways, the new life which accompanies the adoption is, for these children, a blessing.  What the article identified was, however, the difficulties that these children experience adapting to American culture.  In this adaptation the children must adjust their self-concept as their life and surrounding culture changes.  Psychological theorists have discussed at length how humans develop their self-concept, and one of the sources consistently discussed is through socialization.  The theories assert that we garner self-knowledge through our culture, family, attitudes, values, and political and religious affiliation.  Essentially, we define ourselves, in large part, by our culture.  This is why the children adopted from African countries are experiencing difficulties with their self-concept – because they are no longer within the culture that literally, defines who they are.  Their self-concept is changing as they are socialized into a new culture.  In this case, an understanding of self-concept and how it is affected by socialization is relevant to appreciating the situation of these adopted children.