Who Adopts? Characteristics of Women and Men Who Have Adopted Children

Adoption serves several important purposes in contemporary American society. It is a way for individuals and couples to form a legal parental relationship with a nonbiological child. As such, it benefits children whose birth parents are unable or unwilling to raise them and provides adults who are unable to conceive or carry a pregnancy to term a means to bring children into their families (1
–3). Adoption is also used to legalize the parental relationship between a de facto parent and a nonbiological child, such as a step child, a foster child, or a child of a relative, for whom they are already providing care on a daily basis (4).