Although many transracial adoptees (being adopted into a family of a different race) are raised in a loving and caring family, the reality of where they find their cultural identity still exists. Some things to take into consideration when trying to understand how and where adoptees find their cultural identity are the age when the person was adopted, the cultural background of the adopted family, how much time the adoptee spent in their country of origin and their knowledge of where they are from (Reinoso, Juffer & Tieman, 2013, p. 264). Reinoso, Juffer & Tieman (2013, p. 264) researched children who were of the ages of 8-12 years old and were adopted internationally to Spain. When adopted, one's relationship with their new parents is influenced through the adoption, their developing sense of self, and the close relationships they will form throughout their life (Brodzinsky et al., 1992, p. 7). Once the child enters the period of concrete operations, they are then able to value their uniqueness of themselves and their family. The period of concrete operations is when the child is able to use inductive logic (Piaget, 1954). As one can conclude, developing one's own identity can be quite difficult for a transracial adopted child in regards to their ethnicity and race depending on their circumstance (Hollingsworth, 1997).
One may think that internationally adopted children obtain more problems and obstacles than domestic adopted children, however, studies showed that internationally adopted children had less problems (both behaviorally and mentally) than domestic adoptees (Juffer & Van IJzendoorn, 2007). Unfortunately, transracial adoptees struggle more in the sense of cultural identity due to being made fun of for being different, realizing the physical difference between themselves and their adoptive family as they get older, and by pure curiosity of where they came from. A strong argument made by Nam Soon ad Reid (2000, p.