Gender-Asymmetry in Dating Success of Korean Adoptees in the West

doi:10.4236/sm.2011.13011

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Sociology Mind

2011. Vol.1, No.3, 91-95

Gender-Asymmetry in Dating Success of Korean Adoptees

in the West*

Peter D. Dijkstra1,2, Daniel Schwekendiek3, Paul T. Y. Preenen4

1Behavioural Biology, Institute of Biology Leiden, Leiden University

2Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas, Austin, USA;

3Center for Korean Studies, University of California, Berkeley, USA;

4Group of Work and Organizational Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Email: [email protected]

Received March 3rd, 2011; revised April 6th, 2011; accepted May 7th, 2011.

Overseas adoption from South Korea is a widespread phenomenon in the West. Adoption studies have focused

on early development and post-adoption adjustment during childhood and socioeconomic success during adult-

hood. However, few studies deal with dating experiences and marital status of Korean adoptees, while these as-

pects are a key factor determining subjective well-being and sociocultural integration. Several studies and popu-

lar media highlight the status inferiority of Asian males compared to Asian females in the heterosexual Western

courtship system. We therefore hypothesize that male Korean adoptees have more difficulties finding a partner

than their female counterparts. Using a dataset stemming from a survey conducted among 290 adult adoptees

living in the West, we indeed found that, after controlling for the effect of age and current income, males ex-

pressed more difficulty in finding a partner and were more likely to be single than their female peers in their

adoptive Western country. This gender disparity may have implications for policy makers who are concerned

with general well-being of transracial adoptees and Asian minorities in the West.

Keywords: Interracial Dating, Marriage, Adoption, Migration, Gender, Korea, Asia, USA, Europe

Introduction

Transracial adoption, that is, the adoption of children into

families of a different race, is a widespread phenomenon in the

West. For almost four decades of the last century, the greatest

segment of international adoptees were from South Korea. Their

popularity stemmed largely from the reliability and efficiency of

the adoption practice resulting initially from the Korean war

(1950-1953) that left many war orphans. Furthermore, push fac-

tors such as the economic and social burden of unwed mothers in

Korean society, and pull factors such as the introduction of birth

control devices and the female work participation in the West in

combination with the commercialisation of adoptions drastically

increased the number of babies sent from Korea to the West

(Huebinette, 2006). Given the large number of (Korean) adoptees

living in Western countries and the impact adoption can have on

their lives, it is not surprising that a large body of literature inves-

tigates how well particular adoptee groups fare in their adoptive

countries (Kim, 2010; Tuan & Shiao, 2011).

These adoption studies, to date, have mainly focused on

post-adoption adjustment and development during childhood

and ethno-cultural identity formation during late adolescence

and early adulthood (Basow, Lilley, Bookwala, & McGil-

licuddy-DeLisi, 2008; Kim, 1995; Shiao & Tuan, 2008). These

studies revealed for example that Korean adoptees have done

well in academic achievement and social adjustment compared

to adoptees from other ethnic groups, in spite of different and

serious adverse factors (Kim, 1995). Nonetheless, very few

studies deal with dating and romantic opportunities of Korean

adoptees, which is surprising since these aspects are widely

viewed as key factors determining general well-being and social

success. For instance, interracial marriages are often understood

as an indicator of successful assimilation (Belot & Fidrmuc,

2010). More importantly, being in a relationship has well-being

enhancing effects since partners provide not only love, intimacy

and sexual gratification (Diener & Fujita, 1995) but also in-

creased access to material and social resources (Soons &

Liefbroer, 2008; Wilson & Oswald, 2005). An important ques-

tion thus is how ‘successful’ Korean adoptees are in finding a

partner in their adoptive Western countries.

Overall, transracial adoptees from Asia seem to be less often

married than both the local population and white adoptees in

the West (Rooth, 2002: p. 74). Moreover, several quantitative

and qualitative studies observed that in the West, Asian males

are less likely to be married to Whites than Asian females

(Belot & Fidrmuc, 2010; Jacobs & Labov, 1995). This suggests

that Asian males will face, among available heterosexual part-

ners, a smaller pool of interested parties than Asian females.

There are a number of explanations for this sex disparity, in-

cluding lower socioeconomic status of Asian males compared

to their White counterparts and gender-specific value of body

height (Belot & Fidrmuc, 2010; Chow, 2000). Perhaps more

important than that, the media has an enormous bearing on how

Asian men and women are perceived in the West. While Asian

women are mostly hypersexualized in Hollywood and music

videos, Asian men are portrayed as emasculated nerds, see

Elaine H. Kim’s documentary “Slaying the Dragon reloaded:

Women in Hollywood and Beyond” (2010) or Charles Kuralt’s

*Lin Huffman provided useful comments on earlier versions of the manu-

script. The research was supported by a EU (International Outgoing Marie

Curie fellowship) to P.D.D. The authors would also like to thank the

anonymous referees for their comments that helped to improve this paper.

P. D. DIJKSTRA ET AL.

documentary “Misunderstanding China” (1972). This is per-

haps a remnant of the late 19th century: when Asia began to

economically rise and threaten Europe’s hegemony in the world

order, Europeans launched a ‘yellow peril’ campaign (Johnson

& Poddar, 2005: p. 541). At the same time, the increasing num-

ber of Asian immigrants to the New World, and in particular to

the United States, began to threaten white workers in the railroad

and mining industry. This resulted in anti-Asian sentiments that

were fuelled by Asian exclusionist groups (Takaki, 1998).

Emerging prostitution among Asian immigrant women as well

as a large number of Asian men becoming tailors, waiters, cooks,

and most frequently laundrymen in the frontier town economy

were exaggerated in white workers’ propaganda to arouse

anti-Asian sentiments (Eng, 2001: p. 92). This might have con-

tributed to the historical stereotypization of Asian females as

sexual objects and the emasculation of Asian men doing ‘femi-

nine’ jobs. Another factor for the hypersexualization of Asian

women is probably the emergence of U.S. military bases in the

Pacific after World War II. This resulted in rampant bride traf-

ficking and prostitution of poor Asian women around camp-

towns in Asia during the Cold War (Hoehn & Moon, 2010).

We hypothesized that male Korean adoptees have more trou-

ble finding a partner than female Korean adoptees. In a recent

study, Shiao and Tuan (2008) found no gender effect on dating

success or experience among Korean Adoptees in the USA, but

this study was based on a specific, limited sample size of 58

individuals. Another problem of that study was that adopted

parents were contacted by mail. However, previous research

found that a considerable share of adopted parents oppose their

Korean child’s activities to go back to his or her roots (Jung et

al. 2008), and that adult Korean adoptees in the United States

often seem to move from rural to urban areas (in stark contrast

to adult white adoptees)—perhaps as a result of maladjustment

(Evan B. Donaldson Adoption Institute, 2009). In both cases,

primarily ‘well-adjusted’ Korean adoptees are living with their

adoptive parents or are still residing in their hometown—making

it more likely that a large share of ‘well-adjusted’ respondents

were apparently informed about the survey. A comprehensive

study on gender and dating experience of Korean adoptees in the

West is thus still lacking.

Using a dataset stemming from a survey conducted among 290

adult adoptees living in the USA, several Western European coun-

tries, and to a lesser extent in Australia (Jung, Gwon, & Schwek-

endiek, 2008), we investigate whether Korean male and female

adoptees experience different success rates in dating. Specifically,

we hypothesize that first, male Korean adoptees report more diffi-

culties finding a partner, and second, that male Korean adoptees are

more likely to be single than their female counterparts.

Methods

Sample and Procedure

We used data of the Korean Ministry of Health, Welfare and

Family Planning survey conducted among overseas adopted

Koreans in 2008 (Jung et al., 2008). Portions of the survey data

have been used in an earlier study (Schwekendiek, 2009).

Through adoption associations and social media sites Korean

adoptees from the United States, Europe and Australia were

asked to fill out an online questionnaire which included among

other variables, dating experience, marital status and demo-

graphics. These associations were officially listed in the Interna-

tional Korean Adoptees Resource Book (Overseas Koreans

Foundation, 2006), published by the Korean government in 2006

(and encouraged by the researchers to inform their members

about the government survey in 2008). The survey collected data

for 290 individuals. Individuals who answered ‘other’, ‘don’t

know’, or ‘prefer not to say’ to our questions regarding dating

experience and marital status were excluded from the present

analysis (dating experience: 26 cases; marital status: 3 cases).

In addition, we excluded 16 cases where the individuals re-

ported to have either a homo- or bisexual orientation, or who did

not report their sexual orientation (7 cases). Thus, this article

exclusively attempts to investigate the gender-asymmetry in the

Western dating market among Asian individuals with a hetero-

sexual orientation. Worth noting, however, is that in the

non-heterosexual Western world/sphere, Asian men and Asian

women have somewhat different positions, where Asian men

might even be privileged in the dating and mating markets com-

pared to Asian heterosexual men, while the contrary might be

true for their female counterparts. Considering the low number of

non-heterosexual respondents in the survey, however, we cannot

statistically test this hypothesis. In the survey, we find that an

average of 3% reported to be homosexual with no noticeable

differences between the USA (3%) and Europe (3%) (Jung et al.,

2008: p. 68). Also, about 2% of the Korean adoptees self-re-

ported to be gay and 3% to be lesbian. These rates are clearly

within the average range among local populations in the West.

For instance, previous research found that the prevalence of

non-heterosexual couples ranges from 1% - 9% for men and 1% -

6% for women in metropolitan areas of the United States (Black,

Gates, Sanders, & Taylor, 2000: p. 148). Along similar lines, a

previous study found that some 8% of men indicate to have

non-heterosexual desires, while some 3% self-identify them-

selves as gay (Laumann, Gagnon, Michael, & Michaels, 1994:

297). In this light, we can uphold that our heteronormative dating

analysis does make perfect sense, as Korean adoptees do not

seem to be disproportionably interested in same-gender partners.

Thus our final sample size consisted of a total of 241 hetero-

sexual Korean adoptees (32.8% male, 67.2% female). The

mean age of the respondents was 30.1 years (SD = 7.00; SE =

0.45), 180 of the respondents held a bachelor’s or master’s

degree (74.7%), 61 respondents held a professional or no de-

gree (25.3%), 112 participants lived in the US (46.5%), 117

participants lived in Europe (46.5%), and 11 respondents lived

in Australia (4.6%). Note that the sample size (N = 217) was

lower in the analysis that included age and income since several

respondents did not report these variables (age: 3 cases; income:

21 cases). The questionnaires were provided in English and

French. As discussed elsewhere (Schwekendiek, 2009), these

sample demographics are in line with the official demographics

of the 170,000 overseas Korean adoptee population and earlier

adoption studies, indicating that our sample is good enough to

represent the overall adoptees’ population from Korea.

It should also be noted that some associations, such as Global

Overseas Adoptees’ Link, an influential non-governmental

organization run by Korean adoptees based in South Korea,

claims that “upwards of 200,000 Korean children have been out

of Korea for adoption” (see http://www.goal.or.kr/eng/? slms=

info&lsms=1&sl=1&ls=1). However, confirmation of these

numbers are difficult in view of supporting statistical data pro-

vided by governments.

P. D. DIJKSTRA ET AL. 93

Measures

Dating Experience: Difficulty to Find a Partner

In order to rate the degree of opportunities for romantic con-

tact in the adoptive country, individuals were first asked the

following: ‘Did you have any serious problems finding a part-

ner in your adoptive (Western) country? If so, how often?’. The

four responses were 1 = never, 2 = yes, once, 3 = yes, several

times, 4 = yes, often.

Marital Status: The LikeLihood to be Single

In order to determine the proportion of males and females

that were currently in a romantic relationship, the individuals

were asked: ‘What is your marital status?’. The seven responses

were: 1 = single, 2 = attached (boyfriend/girlfriend), 3 = en-

gaged, 4 = married, 5 = divorced, 6 = widowed, 7 = other.

There was only one case reporting ‘windowed’, which was

excluded from the analysis. We collapsed responses 1, 5 and 6

into ‘single’, and 2, 3 and 4 into ‘with partner’, resulting in a

dichotomous response variable.

Covariates

We controlled for age and current income level as measures

that might plausibly covary with our response variables. To

control for these factors individuals were asked: ‘How would

you describe your current income status?’ The four responses

were 1 = very high income, 2 = high income, 3 = middle income,

4 = low incom e, 5 = very low income.

Analysis

We investigated differences between genders in the ex-

pressed level of difficulty of finding a partner using a

Mann-Whitney U test. To explore the effect of age and income

on the gender difference, we used a Generalized Linear Model,

treating the four possible responses as count data by employing

a negative binomial link function. We used gender as the ex-

planatory factor and age and current income as covariates. We

compared the proportion of males and females that were cur-

rently in a romantic relationship using a chi-square test. We

then explored the effect of age and income on the gender dif-

ference in a logistic regression, using the same explanatory

variables as above. The Generalized Linear Model and logistic

regression were run in a stepwise backward manner, sequen-

tially removing the non-significant (interaction) effects using a

threshold of p = 0.1.

Dating Experience

As expected, males expressed more difficulty in finding a

partner than females in their adoptive Western country

(Mann-Whitney U test: U = 4317, p = .000002, N = 241). The

sex disparity was retained when controlling for the effect of age

and income (see Figure 1, gender: Wald = 14.74, df = 1, p

< .0001). Figure 1 suggests that the sex disparity tended to in-

crease with age, mainly as a result of older males expressing

more difficulty in finding a partner in contrast to the situation in

females. However, this effect was not significant (gender x age

Wald = .597, df = 1, p = .44). Current income was also retained

in the model as a significant positive predictor (Wald = 5.347,

df = 1, p = .021), see Table 2.

Dating Status

Relatively more females (65.2%) than males (56.2%) were in

current dating or marriage relationship (see Table 1). However,

this difference was statistically insignificant (males: 39 single

and 50 with partner; females: 62 single and 116 with partner, χ2

= 2.04, df = 1, p = .15). A logistic regression (Figure 2 and

Table 3) revealed, however, that the sex disparity in the likeli-

hood to have a partner tended to increase with age (age x gen-

der: Wald = 4.32, df = 1, p = .038), even when controlling for

the positive effect of current income (Wald = 8.393, df = 1, p =

0.004). This means that older male Korean adoptees are more

likely to be single than their female counterparts.

Figure 1.

Dating experience as a function of age; Notes: Dating ex-

perience (the difficulty to find a partner) for male (open, N

= 75) and female Korean adoptees (closed, N = 143) as a

function of age. Shown are mean ± SE.

Table 1.

Marital status by gender.

Partnership status Women Men

Single 52 (32.0%) 32 (40.5%)

Attached 43 (26.1%) 23 (29.1%)

Engaged 5 (3.0%) 4 (5.1%)

Married 53 (32.1%) 15 (19.0%)

Divorced 8 (4.8%) 5 (6.3%)

Widowed 1 (0.6%) 0 (0%)

No answer 3 (1.8%) 0 (0%)

Notes: number and percentage in each marital status group by sex (women, N =

165; men, N = 79).

Table 2.

Regression on dating experience.

Between subject effects Wald p

Gender 14.74 0.000

Age 6.913 0.009

Income 5.347 0.021

Notes: factors explaining variation in dating experience (the perceived difficulty

to find a partner). Shown is the final model (Generalized Linear Model using the

negative binomial link function).

P. D. DIJKSTRA ET AL.

Table 3.

Regression on dating status.

Variable B S.E. Wald p

Gender 2.35 1.36 2.97 0.085

Age 0.06 0.03 3.82 0.051

Income –0.49 0.17 8.39 0.004

Gender x age –0.09 0.44 4.32 0.038

Constant –1.412 0.582 5.881 0.015

Notes: factors explaining dating status (the likelihood to be single). Shown is the

final logistic regression model.

Figure 2.

Dating status as a function of age; Notes: Dating status for

male (open, N = 82) and female Korean adoptees (closed,

N = 156) as a function of age. Shown are mean ± SE.

Discussion

The main purpose of this report was to compare the per-

ceived degree of difficulty of finding a partner and the likeli-

hood of being single in male and female overseas Korean

adoptees. In accordance with our prediction, males expressed

more difficulty in finding a partner than their female peers in

their adoptive Western country. Moreover, more males than

females were single, though this difference was not significant.

More importantly, in the older age category males were more

likely to be single than females.

To our knowledge, this study is the first to quantitatively

present the gender asymmetry in dating success and marital

status in Korean adoptees or any other transracial adoptees

group. The gender differences in dating experience are consis-

tent with previous studies of Asian American or Asian British

intermarriage, reporting more Asian females than Asian males

to be married to white spouses (Belot & Fidrmuc, 2010; Chow,

2000; Jacobs & Labov, 1995). Nonetheless, our findings con-

tradict an earlier study that did not report gender differences

among Korean adoptees (Shiao & Tuan, 2008). The latter study

may have failed to report gender differences, since its sample

size was small and since probably more ‘well-adjusted’ indi-

viduals were informed by mail about the survey.

The sex disparity seems most likely the result of a Western

mate preference defining Asian females, but not Asian males, as

attractive. This preference asymmetry can be explained by sev-

eral factors. First, the status inferiority of Asian males to White

males in the Western courtship system might result from en-

hanced power and privilege accorded to Whites in largely Euro-

centric societies, giving rise to higher racial status and attrac-

tiveness of White males (Chow, 2000). Secondly, mainstream

stereotypes of Asian males and females may have shaped mate

preferences in White people (Espiritu, 1997; Liang & Ito, 1999).

Moreover, Belot and Fidrmuc (2010) found that height distribu-

tion of white and Asian men, in conjunction with a simple pref-

erence for a taller husband, is sufficient to explain the observa-

tion that Chinese men are half less likely to be married to a

white person than Chinese women in the UK and the USA.

Unexpectedly, we observed that the sex disparity in the like-

lihood to have a partner tended to increase with age. There are

several mutually non-exclusive explanations for this and we can

only speculate about how relevant they are here. A growing

pan-Asian identity in the Western hemisphere may have im-

proved the potential of Asian males in the Western courtship

system (Chow, 2000). Other environmental or social factors that

differ between the age cohorts may account for the observed

gender and age interaction, although the underlying causal

mechanisms are unclear. For example, in the USA a significant

fraction of Korean adoptees spends early adulthood in college.

The growing number of Asian college students in the last dec-

ades may have brought greater romantic opportunities for males

from younger age cohorts (Shiao & Tuan, 2008). More ad-

vanced statistical studies on this are needed to confirm this.

An important limitation of this study is that individuals were

not selected randomly because no information of the adoptees

was made available to the researchers by the adoption agencies

or the government due to privacy protection issues of the

adoptees and the Korean birth families. Instead, the survey was

promoted through national and overseas adoptees’ communities,

which in turn were asked to contact their members to participate.

Sampled adoptees initiating or staying in touch with overseas

networks might have stronger interests (leading to a higher de-

gree of self-selection) than the average adoptee; hence, possibly

skewing some answers. However, when comparing answers of a

control group in the survey that did not self-select themselves

through such organizations but was informed about the survey

by families and friends, no large distortions in the answers were

found (Jung et al., 2008), suggesting that our data is good

enough to broadly represent the Korean adoption population.

Another concern might be that we are overlooking the fact

that Korean adoptees in the West can date both whites and

other races, including their own Asian race. However, it seems

that adopted Korean males are more often dating Asian partners

than their female counterparts do (Jung et al., 2008: p. 69),

which is perhaps exactly a result of local (white) partner con-

straints among Asian males (but not females). In this light, our

analysis may even under-estimate the effects of dating prob-

lems among Asian men in the West.

Lastly, it is needless to say that many other unobserved fac-

tors affect the gender asymmetry in dating success among Ko-

rean adoptees. Worth noting is that the timing of the ‘first con-

tact’ with other ethnic groups (Ellison & Powers, 1994) seems

to have a significant impact on choosing social networks in

later life (including possibly partnerships).

P. D. DIJKSTRA ET AL. 95

To end, our data show that Korean male adoptees face more

difficulties finding a partner than their female counterparts.

This may have implications for adoption policy makers who are

concerned with the general well-being of adoptees. Overseas

adoption from South Korea, and more recently China, is a

widespread phenomenon in the West; debates about adoption

policies and procedures, as well as how well adoptees fare in

early life (Lien, Meyer, & Winick, 1977; Teilmann, Pedersen,

Skakkebæk, & Jensen, 2006; Winick, Meyer, & Harris, 1975)

and adult life (Shiao & Tuan, 2008), often attract a lot of atten-

tion. Some studies on Korean adoptees have revealed that they

have done well in academic achievement and socioeconomic

adjustment compared to other ethnic groups (Kim, 1995), but

our study reveals that Korean male adoptees have considerably

more troubles finding partners in their adoptive Western coun-

tries than their female counterparts. The ability to find a partner

or spouse has a positive effect on a person’s subjective

well-being (Ribar, 2004; Soons & Liefbroer, 2008). We there-

fore conclude that subjective well-being factors such as dating

success and romantic opportunities should be seriously consid-

ered by policy makers in the discussion of general well-being of

transracial adoptees and Asian minorities in the West.

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