Index Introduction 2Context 3Question 3Evidence 1 3Evidence 2 3Evidence 3 3Context 3Question 3Evidence 1 3Evidence 2 3Evidence 3 4Context 4Question 4Evidence 1 4Evidence 2 4Evidence 3 4EssayIntroductionThis essay will address the issue of alternative families and the effect they have on child development. The issue of alternative families is broken down into three subcategories, which include adoption, same-sex parenting, and broken families. The main areas of development that this essay will analyze are a child's emotional and social development. However, does an alternative family structure affect a child's social and emotional development? First, we need to define which alternative families should continue to complete the essay. An alternative family differs from the traditional representation of a family. Examples of alternative families are; foster care and adoption, single parents, central role of grandparents, broken families and same-sex parents. Research conducted in the United States of America shows that stable marriages have declined over the past half century, leaving a high percentage of American children to experience the transition to stepfamilies and/or single-parent families. Furthermore, it has also been shown that children who have to transition into stepfamilies/other family structures may have a worse developmental situation than a child who has been raised in a traditional family. However, the transition to alternative families has no significant effect on African children. (Fomby & Cherlin, 2007)According to this research, repeated movements of parents and their partners and spouses in and out of the child's family could produce...... middle of paper..., calling into question their adoption and identity during adolescence. However, the meta-analysis revealed that international adoptees had fewer overall behavioral problems in adolescence compared to early and middle childhood. The reason why international adoptees have behavioral problems during the preoperative and concrete operational phase is because it can be perceived that they are different because the appearance is different, for example the color of the skin. This creates greater awareness of their adoptive status at an early stage. The prediction/hypothesis that adoptees would struggle with low self-esteem especially during adolescence was not supported, as there was no difference in self-esteem between adopted adolescents and non-adopted adolescents. . Additionally, no differences in self-esteem were found among domestic, international, and transracial adoptees.