Should kin be the first choice as adoptive parents - Personal Statement Example

Adoption al Affiliation Should Kin Be The First Choice As Adoptive Parents? Recently, the rate of adoption has increased in United States. In fact, the number of adopted children continues to increase at an alarming rate. Adoption in United States has been considered as a way of establishing a stable family. This has been possible through various laws and regulations governing the process of adoption. Most of children considered for adoption go through various challenges such as abuse, neglect, and indulgence in unsocial behaviors.

This paper will focus on whether kin should be given first priority as adoptive parents. In United States, the number of the children adopted by their kin continues to rise. However, this is difficult to ascertain due to the ever-changing family set up. In America, the kinship adoption involves the adoption of a child by a relative either a grandparent or stepparent (Green, n.d.). Most of the kinship care is voluntary. Kinship plays an important role in the adoption; therefore, preference should be given at the time of an initial placement.

There are various benefits of having the relatives as first choice adoptive parent. The child is protected from the challenges such as cultural shock, and feeling out of place. There is also more chance of having the biological parent associating with the child more often. This means that the bureaucracy faced with the reintegration process will be minimized. Indeed, this promotes the continuity of family relationship through regular visitation. Moreover, in America most of the states allow the welfare worker to have a continued interaction with the child being adopted.

This is mostly emphasized in foster homes, but in cases where the child is under the attention of the relatives the roles of welfare workers is minimized. Secondly, there is an advantage of relatives being an adoptive parent. Kinship is essential in the adoption process as there is more understanding of the child needs, behavior and other sociological aspects. This is because most of the relatives have deeper knowledge of the child since birth. The child is also likely to be familiar with the caregiver.

This means they have an advantage in addressing all the child sociological needs. Moreover, they will be able to stabilize the child in various forms of deprivation they have had experienced before the unification. Moreover, the child in a kinship family enjoys relative stability and peace. This is because there is a blood relationship and a strong emotional bond. However, in the alternative families most of the children are likely to face racial prejudice, and abuse. This means such a child will be affected emotionally and socially.

Recent data also shows there is a high percentage of the children in kin care programs compared to non-kin care programs (Green, n.d.). However, a few challenges exist in the kinship caregivers. One of the challenges is that most of the kinship caregivers are aged. This is because most the kin foster parents are mostly the grandparents of the children under their care. An aged person is less likely to give all the attention that the child requires.In conclusion, it is clear that the kinship families strengthen the child’s ethnic, racial, cultural and religious heritage, reinforces and promotes connection of familial relationships.

The highlighted benefits show the importance of giving preference to and actively seeking out kin when it becomes impossible for the children to live with their biological parents.ReferenceGeen, R. (n.d.). Kinship Care. Retrieved from http://www.urban.org/pubs/KinshipCare/chapter1.html