Intragroup Socialization for Adult Korean Adoptees: A Multigroup Analysis

Abstract

The purpose of the current study was to test a model of socialization among a sample of adult Korean adoptees. Based on the tenants of homophily and social identity theory, it was hypothesized that participants’ early racial and ethnic socialization experiences would account for their current intragroup friendships as adults, and that this relationship would be mediated by early intragroup contact and moderated by early ethnic identity status. The two ethnic and racial socialization variables (i.e., ethnic heritage activities and racial in-exposure) significantly accounted for participants’ relationships with other Korean adoptees and nonadopted Koreans, and the effects were partially explained by early intragroup contact. Results of multigroup testing indicated the proposed socialization model was non-invariant across groups, such that the effects of ethnic heritage activities on intragroup contact and the effect of racial in-exposure on friendships with Korean adoptees were significantly different based on early ethnic identity status.

Keywords

• Korean adoptees
• transracial adoption
• intragroup socialization
• ethnic identity