This study is based upon a mailed questionnaire taken from a nationwide sample of adoptive parents, and is part of a larger on-going study of contemporary trends in adoption. A question of interest is that whether those parents who have renounced more traditional conceptions of family life have become more receptive toward "hard-to-place" children. It is hypothesized that political conservatism and conventional religiosity would be incompatible with accepting the "hard-to-place". This was found to be true only in some cases, such as in the adoption of black children. The findings suggest that those parents in the forefront in assuming more contemporary family life styles are more amendable to parenting minority children. Also suggested is that the kind of child parents choose to adopt closely reflects their values and institutional commitments. The findings point to a more general need to re-evaluate the criteria employed in placing stigmatized children. For instance, commenting on the reported exclusion of couples with radical politics from the pool of prospective adoptive parents for trans-racial placements; the study suggests that these parents might in fact be among the most appropriate. (Author/AM)