Census question about kids

[redshoes]

I got our Census in the mail today and started to fill it out. Please know that I'm not trying to start a debate with the following question. I'm just curious as to why it makes a difference whether a child is adopted or biological on the form? Both of my sons are adopted (at birth) and I'm not offended by the question, but I wonder why it would make a difference. Does anyone have any insight?

 

[zachnsamsmommy]

I got my census in the mail today, and noticed that question as well. I can't understand why that matters either. Your child is your child, whether biologically or by adoption. It was the one question I scratched my head at as well

 

[Pixiedust34]

At first I wondered the same thing, but dh pointed out that perhaps future generations may use our census answers in a genealogy search and might be interested in knowing whether a family member was adopted. Our kids were adopted too and that's the only semi-logical reason I can think of for why they ask the question.

 

[JessicaR]

This helps explain why that question is asked.

Adoption Alive and Well In America: Census
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaadoption.htm

 

[locolala]

Statistics.. just to get an idea of how many adopted kids there are out there

 

[redshoes]

This helps explain why that question is asked.

Adoption Alive and Well In America: Census
http://usgovinfo.about.com/cs/censusstatistic/a/aaadoption.htm

I knew I should have googled first and then asked . Thank you.

 

[JessicaR]

I knew I should have googled first and then asked . Thank you.

Thats the theme of the day! You're welcome.

 

[Denine]

Thanks for the info. I was feeling a bit offended.

 

[chager]

It is helpful for future geneology too. As dad did research he was trying to figure out how one family had children with a large gaps in age and then a few that were only a couple months apart. Turns out there had been a fire and the parents of 7 children had been killed in it so our ancestors did the unusual and took in ALL the kids instead of farming them out around the community. This meant that the parents were only a few years older then the oldest child and had children the same ages as the youngest ones and went on to have more. We found it very very interesting and really cool!

 

[EMom]

We became miffed (and still are) at DH's family reunion when we noticed the family tree listed our DD as adopted but didn't mention that DH's cousin's twins were born from donor eggs....and were therefore no more biologically related to the family than DD is. Essentially, those twins were "adopted" by her.....only it was done before birth. I mean, they came out of her uterus, but they are no more "Smiths" than our child. Genealogy practices haven't kept up with medical science. The way DH and I see it, if DD was going to be singled out as adopted, then those twins ought to have had a little "donor egg" asterisk by their names, in all fairness. Legal records show DH and I as her birth parents just as DH's cousins are shown as the birth parents of the twins, since that's how her country of adoption handled it.

As for the census....I may just ignore the "adopted child" question until they add a donor egg and donor sperm section.

 

[FireDancer]

In statistical analysis you can never have too much information, at least in the modern age. I work with a lot of data and the more you can regiment data the more accurate it is. Usually, top level classes can be deduced from lower level classes.

Take for example address data. If I ask merely your state of residence I have no way of deducing your city or zip. If, on the other hand, I ask for your city and zip I can deduce the state. This is how polymorphic data works. You want the lowest level class. Everyone living in Parma 44134 lives in the state of Ohio while everyone living in Ohio doesn't live in Parma 44134.

I'd imagine they ask to have more accurate data, nothing more. In this case all adopted children are children while all children are not adopted. I have these battles all the time at work when data isn't collected at a low enough level to generate the reports they will inevitably as for later.

 

[SandrA9810]

I remember watching on the news in the past month or so, about new questions on the census. Some of it had to do with the way people have responded in the past. I remember the black population to be one that they focused on. Older generations seem to refer to themselves as like african american or something, while younger generations are ok with just black. So they've allowed for more options even if some of them mean the same.