Foster Care and Its Effectiveness in Rearing Children

In today’s world, children grow up in seemingly perfect homes and have everything they need to survive, thrive, and be happy, but this doesn’t happen for every child. Some children grow up in a totally different way. Imagine being raised by people who aren’t your biological parents. Oftentimes, being transferred from home to home. Never quite knowing why you are there or how long you will be staying there before you are forced to move again or be returned to your biological parents. Only to be ripped away from them again after they make another mistake. This is something that happens to many children throughout the United States. Being in foster care while growing up is difficult for any child, especially when it is no one’s fault but their own parents.

As a parent, giving up your child for a reason that is completely your fault, can be difficult. Children are placed into foster care for many reasons including: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, abandonment, death, and voluntary placement. Voluntary placement would occur when the child’s behavior is bad or due to the parent’s ill health. Voluntary placement is very rare. Whether a child is placed in foster care or is able to stay in their home is determined by the county social workers and law enforcement. Most of the time it is obvious whether a child should be placed in the care of other people. Children can be placed into foster care for as little as two days up to multiple years. It is different with every situation. Some of the factors that might be considered in whether the child gets placed back with the parents are: is the home safe for the child, is the parent capable of raising the child, and is the child going to be kept safe and well nurtured. This is determined by law enforcement along with a judge and a social worker. Also, once the child is back living with the parent, there are frequent visits from a social worker checking on the child. When there is a situation with multiple children being placed, the foster care system tries its hardest to keep siblings together, but that isn’t always possible. A lot of children are placed in foster care every year in the United States.

Nationally, over 500,000 children are served by state foster care agencies on an annual basis, with nearly 300,000 children entering and exiting care each year. The need for foster placements exceeds available homes by 30-40% (Lawrence, Carlson, and Egeland 1). Of the children in foster care system, approximately 52% are male and 48% are female (Lee 130). There is also a growing rate of bilingual children in foster care. From 2001 to 2011 the percentage of Black and non-Hispanic White children in foster care decreased, while the percentage of Hispanic children increased (Lee 130). This creates a need for bilingual foster parents which are even harder to find than regular foster parents. In the United States today, there is a great need for good foster homes for children.

There are two different types of foster homes. One is care by relatives and the other is care by non-relatives (Lee 130). In some states in the United States, up to 50% of child placements in out-of-home care are with close relatives. Sometimes these relatives live out of state and if out of state relatives are willing to take the child or children, they are sent out of state. Otherwise, children are kept in the county they are from. If that county doesn’t have any homes open, then they are sent to a neighboring county. There are significant differences between children who are placed with relatives versus children who are placed with strangers. It would be ideal for them to get placed with family members who they are already familiar with. However, in most cases, that doesn’t happen because of lack of relatives living in the area. Also, the experience for most children in care is often of instability, meaning frequent moving from one foster home to another. 1 in 3 children will fail to achieve long-lasting placement and may experience frequent placement moves and transfers to restrictive settings like group homes and treatment facilities (Rubin et al. 1).

The effectiveness of foster care is subject to controversy. Throughout the current foster care literature, removing children from their families of origin or placing them in out of home care has been associated with negative developmental consequences that place children at risk for behavioral, psychological, developmental, and academic problems (Lawrence 1). It would also be ideal if children never had to get placed into foster care in the first place, but parents do make mistakes that cause the children to have to be removed from their care.

There are multiple reasons that children get taken out of their homes and placed into foster care. While living with their parents, 88% of children are exposed to abuse (Raman and Sahu 420). Placement of children into foster care is often caused by failures within the caregiving environment (Lawrence, Carlson, and Egeland 2). Prior adversity and toxic stress including child abuse, neglect, exposure to domestic violence, poverty, and family dysfunction put these children at greater risk of experiencing developmental delay (Hodges et al. 2155). Entry is often associated with a history of child maltreatment perpetrated by the primary caregiver, failure of primary caregivers to protect children from maltreatment by others, parental chemical addiction, psychological or physical illness of the primary caregiver, homelessness, children’s behavior problems, poor quality of the parent-child relationship, and parental abandonment of children (Lawrence, Carlson, and Egeland 1). Different types of parenting styles can also be a factor affecting why children get placed into foster care.

There are many different types of parenting styles that parents use to make sure their children are well taken care of and given the best life possible. Not all parents are able to give their children the life they deserve. It is sometimes due to lack of the necessities needed to live but it is also due to maltreatment by the biological parents. Roughly 70-80% of children in out of home placements have been maltreated in the home of origin and the prevention of further maltreatment is achieved in the majority of cases (Lawrence, Carlson, and Egeland 1). Research in the general population that has linked behavioral problems to parenting style has found that an approach to child rearing based on warmth, communication and the establishment of clear rules is associated with fewer behavioral problems among children (Fuentes et al. 704). A lack of affection, coldness and hostility in the relationship with parents were the variables that differentiated children with and without behavior problems.

Research on parenting styles has found that foster children are better able to adapt to their foster family if what they encounter is authoritative parenting. When foster parents are able to set limits and to explain the basis for them, then foster children tend to present fewer behavior problems. When foster parents tolerate inappropriate behavior by the child or are overly severe or demanding with following the rules, then the child is likely to show more behavior problems. Research has also found that negative parenting strategies have a greater impact on behavior problems than does the absence of positive relationships (Fuentes 705). Children make better progress and show fewer problems, especially of an internalizing kind, meaning problems within themselves and their body and mind, when foster parents are more sensitive, empathetic, understanding, communicative and unconditional. A rigid and aggressive parenting style has been associated with poorer outcomes and behavior problems. Problem behavior tends to decrease when a foster parent is more engaged with their foster child, teaching them rules, guiding their behavior and encouraging them to be more independent (Fuentes 705). This not only helps build a better relationship between the foster parent and the child, but it also helps the child become a better person.

Research has found that negative parenting styles, based on the use of harsh punishments, inconsistent discipline, and rigid control over the child’s behavior, are associated with more emotional and behavioral problems. Warmth and a positive parenting style, as well as engagement with the foster child, are associated with fewer behavior problems, whereas rejection and the use of negative parenting strategies are more likely to lead to an increase in problem behavior (Fuentes 705). Hopefully children can learn from the positive parenting styles and take what they learned and apply it after leaving the foster home or in their life as an adult. With many things leading to behavior problems, there has to be other developmental problems that children in foster care face.

Many children adapt satisfactorily to being placed in a foster family but, in some cases, their response is misleading. Some, especially young children, while undoubtedly stressed do not develop behavioral problems but instead adopt avoidance behavior as a way of coping with problems generated by their change of living situation. Foster parents might not recognize that the child is stressed and interpret his or her behavior as appropriate, thinking that ‘everything is OK’. This might make the child feel misunderstood and unacknowledged which, in turn, can lead to very high levels of stress (Van Andel 19). This can then lead to additional problems with the child.

While away from their parents, children face many problems that affect their development. Not only physically but mentally and socially too. Children in foster care have greater physical, medical, developmental, educational, and mental health needs than children not in foster care (Hodges et al. 2155). Exposure to abuse and household dysfunction in early life has a strong impact on learning, behavior and physical health in later childhood, well into adulthood (Raman and Sahu 420). The biggest concerns in children are their behavioral problems which were reported in over half of the children. Developmental and educational difficulties were also a significant burden. Almost half were identified with speech concerns, over a third had incomplete immunizations and 28% had hearing concerns. Fine motor skills, which are skills that have to do with small muscles between the hands, fingers and eyes, or vision concerns were identified in about a quarter of the children, while a fifth had nutritional or gross motor concerns. Research has also observed higher rates of mental health problems and behavioral disorders among children in family fostering than in the general population (Fuentes 704).

Although all odds are against foster children, foster children still do have the ability to become who they want to be. With a little extra push and a little more drive, they can grow up to succeed just like everyone else who grew up with their biological parents. Whether it is going back to their parents, which is determined by a judge in court after the parent has agreed to follow the law and has done everything they need to get their child back, or staying in foster care and getting adopted, with the extra motivation from an adult, they have the ability to grow up and be successful just like everyone else.

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