A quiet migration: cultural influences impacting children adopted from the former Soviet Union.
When children immigrate to another culture, a variety of salient variables influence their adaptation. Among internationally adopted children, these variables include early history, changes in socioeconomic status, awareness of multiple issues impacting the child post-adoption, availability of social networks, and anti-immigration sentiments in the host culture. The change in socioeconomic status of children adopted from the former Soviet Union is a positive influence with the concomitant improvement in the child's nutrition and health care. Many internationally adopted children have spent time in institutional environments that constitute a culture in and of itself. The orphanages are microenvironments which may be closed to the influences of the larger culture. The environmental components of the orphanage transmit a collection of traits and values which, taken as a whole, constitute the orphanage culture. Adoptive parents must facilitate the children's adjustment to a new cultural milieu with different language, food, and customs. Further, children must adapt to the culture of the family, a culture that may have been previously unknown. Nurses can promote the adaptation of these families by increasing awareness of the multitude of issues that impact internationally adoptive families.
McGuinness
T
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University of South Alabama, College of Nursing Community Mental Health Nursing, Springhill Area Campus, Mobile, AL 36604, USA. teena@adoption-research.org
D000069:Acculturation; D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000300:Adoption / Q000208:ethnology*; D002648:Child; D018864:Cultural Diversity; D004641:Emigration and Immigration; D006293:Health Promotion / Q000379:methods; D006801:Humans; D008016:Life Change Events; D008019:Life Style; D015279:Organizational Culture; D019372:Orphanages / Q000458:organization & administration; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology; D010371:Pediatric Nursing / Q000379:methods; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012944:Social Support; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D014586:USSR; D014481:United States