A study conducted by four economists with the Centre for Economic Policy and Research has revealed that Caucasian, Hispanic and female babies are more likely to be adopted than are African-American or male infants.

A Jan. 25 article by Catherine Rampell of the New York Times provided the following details about the study, which involved the analysis of five years of data on more than 800 adoptable children:

The authors found that girls are consistently preferred to boys. For non-African-American babies, for example, the probability that a prospective adoptive parent expresses interest in such a baby is 11.5 percent if the baby is a girl and 7.9 percent if the baby is a boy.

Interestingly, in many cultures the preference for biological children runs in the opposite direction, with parents strongly preferring boys instead of girls. The authors suggest that this preference for girls in cases of adoptive children may be because adoptive parents "fear dysfunctional social behavior in adopted children and perceive girls as 'less risky' than boys in that respect."

Additionally, Caucasians and Hispanics are consistently preferred to African-Americans. The probability that a non-African-American baby will attract the interest of an adoptive parent is at least seven times as high as the corresponding probability for an African-American baby.

Labels: gender, research, race

Posted By: Aspen/CRC