Cross-cultural adoption is one in which the child is from a different culture than that of the adoptive parents. Many cross-cultural adoptions are also interracial, and subsequently, the child has a racial and cultural background that varies from those of the adoptive parents. In the professional literature, the terms cross-cultural and interracial are often used interchangeably with the terms transcultural and transracial respectively. Moreover, it is important to note that cross-cultural and interracial adoptions may occur domestically and internationally.

Although it is not always the case, cross-cultural and interracial adoptions are frequently characterized by Whites who create families with children of a different cultural or racial group by birth. [Page 38]Because the practice is embedded with complex clinical, social, legal, and political implications, cross-cultural and interracial ...