Hidden Among the Hidden: Transracially Adopted Korean American Adults Raising Multiracial Children

The parenting practices of both transracially adopted Korean American adults and multiracial families are often overlooked in developmental science, yet are important to address given that the majority of Korean adoptees are now adults with families of their own and given rapid increases in the multiracial population. This qualitative study examined the cultural socialization beliefs and practices among transracially adopted Korean Americans who are parents of multiracial Asian-White children. Drawing upon interviews with 31 Korean adoptee parents (29 female; Mage = 41.26), we identified four themes that capture parents’ understanding of their children’s multiracial identities, how that understanding subsequently shapes their cultural socialization practices, and how parents’ socialization beliefs and practices vary by developmental stage. These themes described the ways that parents’ cultural socialization practices were shaped by their children’s phenotypes, parents’ understanding of their children’s multiracial identities, geographic location, and the multiracial family context. This study also demonstrated how multiracial couples in our sample engaged in cultural socialization together. Results suggest that Korean adoptee parents largely acknowledged their children’s multiracial identities through labels, but primarily socialized children as monoracial minorities.