One of the interesting
situations found in a study of adoptions, field work in which has
recently been completed by the U.S. Children’s Bureau, is
a wide variation in the use of adoptions in different States. . . .
Adoption rates in these States varied from 2 to 10 children per
10,000 children under ten years of age. The proportion of urban
population in the State apparently affected the extent to which
adoption was used. . . . It is probable that group
attitudes toward the acceptance of children of other parentage into
the family life and agency attitudes toward placement for adoption
also affect the situation. The adoption records showed wide variation
in the use of adoption by white families and by families of other
races. In one Southern State in which 36 percent of the population
are Negroes, only 28 Negro children were adopted as compared with
124 white children. . . .
Any study of the children for whom petitions of adoption have been
filed will show that a large proportion of them were born out of
wedlock. In the Children’s Bureau study, we found that about
60 percent of the children belonged in this group. Furthermore,
among the children adopted by persons other than relatives nearly
three-fourths were of illegitimate birth. . . .
It is evident that a close relationship exists between adoptions
and birth out of wedlock. One basic need would seem to be to know
more about this relationship in terms of its extent. For example:
Are illegitimate births increasing? What proportion of the children
born out of wedlock are adopted? Is our adoption rate a fairly stable
one? We have no exact answers to these questions but some suggestive
information.
Birth statistics published annually by the United States Bureau
of the Census show that in the States reporting during the entire
six-year period 1929-1934 there has been an increase in the registered
illegitimate births each year except 1933. Whether this increase
represents more accurate registration influenced by increased tolerance
and willingness to accept the situation or whether it is due to
actual increase in the numbers of births, it is impossible to say.
Of the total 78,898 illegitimate births reported in 1934, less than
half of the children (35,547) were white and all but 1,339 of the
remainder were Negroes. The increase in registered colored births
from 1929 to 1934 was greater than in white births. In the States
reporting during this period the number of white illegitimate births
showed an average annual increase of over 700. This increase in
the number of children born out of wedlock does not necessarily
mean that more children are available for adoption. With the development
of standards of child placing throughout the country, increasing
emphasis is being placed on the suitability of a child for adoption
as well as on the development of other means for adequate care of
children handicapped by the status of their birth.
As to the number of children born out of wedlock who are actually
adopted, we have little information about them. . . .
No accurate State statistics on this situation are available, but
theoretically a comparison of the number of illegitimate births
during a year with the number of adoptions of children of illegitimate
birth during a similar period should give some indication of the
extent to which adoption occurs. In attempting to make such a comparison
with the figures available, we were seriously handicapped by the
fact that California and Massachusetts, two of the states included
in our adoption study, do not report illegitimate births. We found
on using this crude comparison of births and petitions for adoption
in the remaining States that apparently nearly a fifth of the white
children born out of wedlock were adopted. In one State having a
high adoption rate, about 200 white illegitimate births are registered
each year, and in 1934 petitions for adoptions were filed for 98
children of illegitimate birth, largely by persons who were not
relatives. . . .
Let us assume that only a fifth of the white children born out
of wedlock are adopted. Unquestionably, a large proportion of the
remaining children are being cared for by their mothers of by other
close relatives who have accepted this responsibility without recourse
to legal methods for giving the children the family name and rights
of inheritance. Almost equally unquestionable, in the opinion of
many persons, is the possibility that a large number of these children
are under the care of persons who are not relatives, but who fail
to give the children the legal protection of adoption. Some of these
children undoubtedly are passed from family to family as the interest
of the foster parents wanes or some misfortune occurs. Assistance
and advice given to the mother when she needs it the most, during
pregnancy or at the time of confinement, would do much toward reducing
this hazardous, unplanned care. . . .
I have presented to you only the barest outline of the interrelationship
of illegitimacy and adoption and have made no attempt to discuss
many of the pressing and immediate problems with which many of you
are working. There are probably no two other subjects around which
are centered so many strong emotional reactions, which are constantly
preventing a rational and sound approach to the problem. . . . |