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S= ummer 1998

= In Sun Park: her search for the people who search

= A Korean adoption researcher makes her findings public

By Martha Vickery

The effect of international adoption on the liv= es of adopted persons is the subject of a research study by Dr. In Sun Park, a Ph.D. Korean researcher in social work who has recently complet= ed her doctoral dissertation, which is based on findings from her study of 124 adult Korean adoptees. The study profiles their opinions on growing up adop= ted and their interest in and extent of success in searching for birthparents.

In researching a top= ic which, in the past has been clouded by traditional thinking, and personal a= nd cultural bias, Park has sought out and published a set of statistically relevant facts about how adoptees see themselves as adults, and importantly, how the desire to search for birthparents is more the norm than the excepti= on among adult Korean adoptees. The research results, with= some writings by adoptees, are published in a book entitled People Who Search, a= nd is now available through Children's Home Society of Minnesota (CHSM)= .

Park spoke on her re= search at a recent series of "Children's Day" events, an annual celebrat= ion for children and adults sponsored by CHSM. The Children's Day events are ti= med to coincide with the traditional Children's Day holiday in Korea.

Dr. In Sun Park's life project in adoption research actually began with her first experience in adoption placement at Eastern Child Welfare Society in 1976. = She remembers, as a young person just starting out in social work, that the enormity of the responsibility involved in adoption social work was almost overwhelming to her. Her first case involved a third daughter of a married couple. "It was a shock to me. The couple was really begging me to take that third daughter in order to keep their marriage. The mother-in-law want= ed them to be divorced. They had told her they had delivered a dead child,&quo= t; she said, explaining that the presence of a third daughter in a family want= ing sons would have destabilized the family too much.

Park said this situa= tion was shocking to her because her own upbringing, and = the upbringing in so many Korean families is much different than this. "I = am a middle-class person, and I did not have many life experiences before that. = Just being at home, and studying and going to school, and back home, and study a= nd sleep!" she said, laughing. "And I am the youngest of seven. My parents took care of all seven of us through the Japanese occupation and the Korean War, and somehow kept everyone together. So I thought all families w= ere like that. That's why my first job was such a shock to me." The fact t= hat her family was Christian also made a big difference, Park believes. "My parents also did not discriminate sons from daughters. Perhaps a little bit, but not too much," she added.

From the beginning o= f her career, Park said, she started thinking about the cultural and social syste= ms in place, some of which seemed to work together to give families in crisis = more incentives to place children for adoption than to keep the family together = through hard times. Thinking about and developing other policies to counteract these negative social forces occupy her still and are another focus of her professional interest.

She advanced quickly= to the supervisory level, mainly, she said, because all women workers were require= d to quit their jobs when they got married. Park remained single, and was promot= ed to "senior" in six months. "Most female social workers at th= at time got married within one or two years of their graduation," she sai= d, but now, they often keep their jobs after marriage. This system creates a l= ot of turnover in areas like social work which are strongly female-dominated i= n Korea.

The impetus for her recently-published research goes back to her days as an adoption social work supervisor, when she was responsible for choosing which children would be adopted domestically, and which internationally, and if they were to be ado= pted internationally, what country they would grow up in. "I always wanted = to know. Did I do the right thing or wrong thing? Is it really good for the ch= ild and for the family or not? I always wanted to know (the results) of what I = was doing."

Because her research= topic involved only adults, Park has had numerous opportunities to meet with and interview the young adult adoptees she was responsible for placing back in = the '70s. "I think always I am afraid when I have a phone call from (a per= son who was) my case. I need time to prepare to meet that person." The eff= ect that the supervisory job, and the great responsibility attached to it, is s= till very much with her. "It was a very heavy job," she said.

In the course of her research, adoptees have now been her teachers, and from them she has learne= d a lot of important lessons, she said. For example, she said she has learned h= ow important it is for adoptees to have a sense of continuity in their lives, = that is, to have information about what their lives were like in Korea before their placement = to a foreign country. If information about their birthfamily is not available, j= ust knowing something about the part of Korea they came from may be v= ery significant to them, Park discovered.

Park also discovered= some facts that have been confirmed by other research. "All previous resear= ch said Korean adopted persons have been growing up very well," she explained. "I was doubtful about that. When I sampled the adoptees, I thought the result might be different. But in my research questionnaire, th= ere were twelve items on self-esteem, and the result was so good. It makes me v= ery relieved. That was my surprise, I must say."

Certain aspects of t= he effects of international adoption came to light for the first time, and des= erve further study, Park said. "I have come to know that adoption is much m= ore complex than I expected, or that I had previously learned. I have seen many adult adopted persons in Korea who would like to stay longer in Korea. Most adoptees' relatio= nship with their adoptive families is very good. But, they said they would like to spend more than one year in Se= oul. And they said that (they wanted to do it so they could) feel that belonging= to Korean society, and feel that way about being in Korea."

Adult adoptees have = very complex feelings that are not immediately apparent, Park said. "When I= met adult adopted persons for the first time, all of them say 'I am OK. I am ha= ppy. I have no problems.' But then, if we can have an ongoing relationship, they= do eventually speak out their pain about being an adopted person. Their social function is good. But I wish there were a way to help them have less pain a= s an adopted person, then they could have even higher social function." Park said that it was necessary to meet adoptees and personally interview them, sometimes more than once, in order to establish = the kind of relationship that would allow adoptees to express themselves honest= ly on a very deep and emotional topic. In the questionnaires, adoptees tended = to report themselves as happier and better adjusted than they actually were, s= he discovered.

Park said adoptees i= n her study who lived in Korea may have believed they would understand the reasons for their adoption as t= hey lived in Korea and became more knowledgeable about the society, but in fact, Park said she= has found that the opposite is true. "Those who stayed in Korea perhaps two or three ye= ars seemed to become more and more confused. They still did not understand Kore= an society," she said. For example, the concept of placing a child for adoption to save a marriage is very foreign to Westerners, she said, but th= is does happen in Korea. Such cultural differences do not become easier for Westerners to accept over time, she said.

Park told a story ab= out being contacted by an order of nuns in charge of domestic adoption. She was asked by the sisters to find an international adoptee, living in Korea temporarily, who would speak at an event on domestic adoption, and agree to testify that a domestic adoption would have been better. "So I contact= ed several adult adopted persons who were staying in Korea, and everybody laughed = about my request! Someone suggested to me to go to Kimpo airport, pick up an adult adopted person there who has just come to <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Korea for the first time, and= ask that person to do it! They said that when they first come to Korea, = they all have the same thought that perhaps it would have been better for them to be adopted by Koreans in Korea. But after they live with Korean people in Korean society, they fear what it would have been like to be adopted in Korea." The level of discrimination experienced by adoptees in <= st1:place w:st=3D"on">Korea becomes apparent to the foreign adoptees after they have experienced Korean life, she said.

Park does not plan t= o work in the field of adoption again. Her place, she feels is in teaching future social workers and working on social change around issues of adoption, offe= ring her own point of view, whenever possible, about the kinds of responsibiliti= es she feels that Korean society has to adult adoptees. Park said she believes= she has just scratched the surface of what there is to learn in this field, and hopes, in the future, to continue to research information that will help everyone involved with adoption in improving understanding of Korea-U.S. international adoption issues. "There is so much still to know," = she said. "and I am just a beginner, constantly learning."

http://www.k= oreanquarterly.org/Summer98/insunpark.asp

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