Date of Award

2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Gong, Yidong

Area of Concentration

Anthropology

Abstract

The topic of this research is discovering what defines the connection between adopted people and their biological fathers due to the lack of research regarding that perspective. The research was conducted through repeated in-depth interviews online and in person. The subjects that are addressed here involve the intersection between adoptees' gender and adoptive identity, biases held within the adoptive household, and negative biases towards their countries of origin. These topics assist in understanding the kinship found, or not found, between the participants and their biological fathers. Two frameworks are also presented here, deemed the Adoptive Environment Bias and the Motherland Paradox. Other themes that present themselves involve how the adoptees view their ethnicities, culture, birth givers, and adoptive parents, and how that leads to the dismissal or rejection of the biological father. All of these characteristics amass as the participants' perceptions and connections to the biological father are uncovered.

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