Summary and Purpose
Adoption is a good practice that helps children find families. In their article “Engagement in Racial Socialization Among Transracial Adoptive Families with White Parents,” Hrapczynski and Leslie (2018) “identify predictors of White transracial adoptive parents’ engagement in racial socialization with their adopted minority adolescents” (p. 354). This quotation demonstrates that the scholars only consider the specific population because the authors focus on White adults who adopted representatives of a minority group.
There is a clear connection between the article under analysis and the fields of family studies and human services. The research focuses on how specific family functions and how relations between parents and children can impact the latter’s development (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). One can state that human service providers can use the obtained findings to help adoptive parents choose the most appropriate strategies to deal with their minority adolescents.
Since the study’s goal was to identify the most impactful predictors, it is not surprising that the authors needed to rely on quantitative, cross-sectional methodology to compare the effectiveness of different factors. Thus, appropriate calculations were performed to identify and compare the role of many predictors, including color-blind attitudes, past multicultural experiences, current multicultural experiences, racial socialization practices, cultural socialization, and preparation for bias (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). This information proves that the article under consideration is quantitative research.
It is possible to mention that the information in the article is based on science. Firstly, the study follows an evident structure that is typical for scientific works. Secondly, the authors focus on reputable and credible sources to provide their survey with background information and investigate the topic. Finally, the conclusions are trustworthy since they rely on credible data and statistical analysis, while the transparent and scientific research process led to obtaining findings.
Further details will demonstrate that the selected article is of high quality. Firstly, the research was confidential because the report only discloses participants’ age, ethnicity, and income, instead of mentioning their names (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). Secondly, linear regression analyses were used to compare the effect of the selected predictors (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). Thirdly, it seems that the article has met all the ethical standards, but the only possible issue refers to the fact that the authors fail to explain whether the individuals gave voluntary consent to participate in the study. Finally, a significant effort to improve the paper can be made if random sampling techniques are used to recruit the sample.
Discussion and Future Research
The article results improve the family studies field because they demonstrate how racial socialization can be promoted among White parents of adoptees. It has become evident that it is necessary to challenge color-blind attitudes among parents to ensure that they socialize the adolescents who represent different minority groups (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). This information demonstrates that the given field learns how to solve the existing problem that refers to insufficient socialization of adoptees.
Future research can be performed to develop the topic and obtain more complete results. The authors stipulate that it is required to assess a connection between a child’s characteristics, including race, age, or gender, and parents’ engagement in racial socialization (Hrapczynski & Leslie, 2018). However, I suggest that random sampling should be used to assess the topic that was considered by Hrapczynski and Leslie (2018). This step will allow the researchers to obtain the highest quality findings and start modifying the topic as mentioned above.
Even though the article under analysis is a robust research piece, it still leads to a few questions. Will the obtained results be the same if a larger sample size is included? Can parents’ attitudes to racial socialization change over time? If yes, how will this fact affect the adopted children and interfamily dynamics? Answers to these questions can allow for receiving a better insight into the topic.
Reference
Hrapczynski, K. M., & Leslie, L. A. (2018). Engagement in racial socialization among transracial adoptive families with white parents. Family Relations 67, 354-367. Web.