Karin Garber: Adoptive Microaggressions

Dr. Karin Garber describes her research on adoptive microaggressions, beginning by outlining ways that stigma and stereotypes about members of the adoption kinship network can lead to intentional or unintentional negative messages that can be communicated through behavioral, verbal, and environmental means. Dr. Garber goes on to describe the spectrum of microaggressions, providing examples of microassaults, microinsults, and microinvalidations that adoptees may experience. She then compares microaggressions experienced by adoptees with the research on microaggressions experienced by birth/first parents and adoptive parents. Dr. Garber provides helpful suggestions for adoptive parents seeking to support their adoptive children in navigating and responding to microaggressions as well as for practitioners working with members of the adoption kinship network. She concludes by discussing a new area of research that she and others are pursuing related to intraethnic and intraracial microaggressions experienced by transracial adoptees. For more information and a transcript visit emilyhelder.com