I recently read an article online about a new study, published in the American Sociological Review, claiming that adoptive parents spend more time with their children, as well as more money on them than biological parents.

One of the reasons adoptive parents invest more is that they really want children, and they go to extraordinary means to have them," Indiana University sociologist Brian Powell, one of the study's three co-authors, said in a telephone interview Monday.

While I do agree with the fact that adoptive parents do need to go through a lot of hoops, background checks, finger printing, home studies, and the list goes on and on, I also believe that this article is going to cause quite the stir amongst the parenting community. I am both an adoptive parent, as well as a biological parent, and feel as though I spoil my children quite equally, shelling out time and money on both of them. In fact I am often accused of being a helicopter parent, meaning that I hover over them too much, and am told to give the boys more time away from mom. But this holds true when it comes to both of my children, not just the one whom happens to be adopted, or the one whom happens to be my biological son.

Adoptive parents face a culture where, to many other people, adoption is not real parenthood," Powell said. "What they're trying to do is compensate. … They recognize the barriers they face, and it sets the stage for them to be better parents."

Now I do believe that this statement does hold a lot of truth to it. Many people that I have come into contact with, whom I have shared my story of adoption with, either by choice, or intrusive questions, do seem to believe that I am not a real, or true parent to my adopted stepson. There definitely does seem to be a large spread belief that the best parent for the child is the biological parent, and there have been times where I have felt pressure to go above and beyond in order to prove to the world that I am in fact a very real, and very true parent to both my children, regardless of how they happened to become my children.

The researchers said 161 families in the survey were headed by two adoptive parents, and they rated better overall than families with biological parents on an array of criteria including helping with homework, parental involvement in school, exposure to cultural activities and family attendance at religious services. The only category in which adoptive parents fared worse was the frequency of talking with parents of other children.

Since my little one is not yet in school, I cannot say if I help one child more with homework than the other. I have always helped my adopted stepson with his homework, until this past school year. Now that he is in high school we have stepped back some and let him take control over things more and begin to learn how to take the skills that we have taught him in the past and apply them to life and learn how to be more self sufficient. However with my husband being the biological parent of both my boys, I can say that while he is involved with school and activities, I do tend to be the one in the mix more than he is. But is that because he is a biological parent, or simply because he works outside the home, and I am just more accessible to the children than he is? On the flip side, as the adoptive parent I am constantly speaking with other parents, while as the biological parent, my husband tends to keep quiet. Again does that stem from being the biological parent, or simply being a man and it just not being in his nature to confide in others when it comes to household, or parenting issues?

Adam Pertman, executive director of the Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, welcomed the study's findings, but cautioned against possibly exaggerated interpretations of it.
"It's an affirmation that there are all sorts of families that are good for kids," he said. "Adoptive parents aren't less good or better. They just bring different benefits to the table. In terms of how families are formed, it should be a level playing field."

I think that this is a great quote to end this article on. For those looking to read the entire article, you can click on the link above, or click here. The article also touches on same sex adoptive couples, but with my initial fear that the parts of the study I have already shared may get some hairs riled from a few readers, I figured that, at least for now, I would leave that out of this article, and let those whom are interested in the entire study and article, follow the link to form their own conclusions on all aspects which are covered in the article.