Abstract
There are over 400,000 children in foster care across the United States and African American and other children of color continue to be overrepresented (AFCARS, 2016). Only 35% of African American children that are in adopted from foster care although they make up of 24% of children in care. Transracial adoption refers to a child of one race or ethnic group being adopted by a person of another race or ethnicity. Transracial adoption has been a controversial topic for years, particularly with the National Association of Black Social Workers (NABSW). This study attempts gain insight on MSW students attitudes and perceptions towards transracial adoptions, how is race and ethnicity related to attitudes of transracial adoptions among MSW students, and how a student’s personal experiences affect their attitudes towards transracial adoption. The survey was administered to 84 first- and second-year Master of Social Work students at a large public university in Northern California. The researchers ran statistical analysis utilizing SPSS. After analyzing the data using our hypothesis showed the majority of students supported the practice of transracial adoptions. Limitations are suggestions for social work implication are discussed. We found that being in a relationship with someone of a different race or ethnicity was related to more positive attitudes towards transracially adoptive ethnic identity development. Additionally, we found that Title IV-E students showed significantly more negative attitudes towards transracial adoption.