The Issue of Self-Identity Development of Children in Foster Care due to the Lack of Stability

There are many ways one can interpret the gradual socialization of a community. One of which can be seen from the vantage point of a symbolic interactionist, who explains the symbolic meaning that is placed upon objects, behaviors, and events in the process of social interaction. To try to understand how a symbolic interactionist might view the development of social identity, one can look at the issue of children in foster care and their lack of interaction with a stable family, which is believed to be essential in creating symbolic meaning.My contention in this essay is that children who are placed into foster care are likely to experience development issues related to identity because they lack stability.

Children who remain in foster care for an extended amount of time are less likely to receive the emotional support that symbolic interactionists believe is essential in the development of self-identity and independency. Henry S. Maas, a Mental Health Specialist who studied the effect of long-term foster care establishments on child development, and Richard Engler concluded that forty to fifty percent of children who spent time in foster care experience symptoms of maladjustment (5). This means that just about half of children that enter the foster care system have the inability to react successfully to the demands of their environment. According to a Symbolic interactionist’s viewpoint, analytical actions that one naturally uses in their life situations are intentionally used as operations of self-development. Taking this in terms of maladjustment which Maas stated to be a relevant issue in foster care, we can assume that this issue in children leads them to not properly be able to analyze situations and use them to construct their version of social reality, because they lacked the emotional support that leads to self-development. Thus, by not being able to construct their reality, children cannot form a sense of self.

Along with the lack of emotional support, neglect from biological parents when placed in alternative home can leave children with aggressive behavior and peer difficulties which makes interaction, which is a key factor in finding self-identity to a symbolic interactionist, close to impossible.Professor in the Department of Human Development, Brenda Jones Harden, explains that emotional mistreatments such as abandonment and neglect lead to a decline in cognitive understanding of academics, common dissociation, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other behavioral problems both internalized and externalized (34). Symbolic interactionists explain that a person places symbolic values onto people, which family plays a big role in. The lack of support from biological family leaves children without a foundation that a majority of children do have. A supporting family that is symbolized in society as normal and necessary to be considered a stabilized person. In short, a symbolic interactionist explains that family is essential in identity development because importance has been placed on acceptance into a family. When denied, or unable to be taken care of by family, children generally cannot relate to other children which leads to a flaw in identity development.

Additionally, foster care parental figures play a dehumanizing role without realizing it, and therefor strip children of the opportunity to find themselves. Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nurse Scientist, Susan M. Kools helps us understand a study done 1991 that explained foster care’s effect on devaluation of self. According to Kools, for children in foster care, conditions that contribute to the downward adjustment of self by others include the diminished status of “foster child”. The stereotypes that are placed upon them.Kools explains that the findings in this study revealed that children in homes found themselves living in a place similar to an institution. Knives and objects were locked up, they couldn’t listen to the radio, and they were talking to as if they were crazy and about to commit some relentless crime (266). From a symbolic interactionist viewpoint, we use the structure of values from symbols to define ourselves in relation to our community as a whole. Because foster home parental figures treat children as patients in an institution rather than a home structure, they are unable to define themselves in relation to their community.

The issue of self-identity development in foster care children has become a central problem as the amount of kids being fostered rises. As discussed, a Symbolic Interactionist sociologist explains that people develop and rely on symbolic meaning that they use in social interaction. Because emotional support lacks in foster care, children do not learn how to respond to their community in a socially acceptable way. Aggressive behavior and the inability to find themselves is also a common problem in foster care children. Because they experience abandonment and neglect from their parents, as well as being treated as institutionalized children by their “replacement” parents. Due to these things, we can accurately conclude that children who enter foster care are likely to experience related to identity because they lack stability emotionally.

Works Cited

• Brym, Robert J., and John Lie. Sociology: Pop Culture to Social Structure. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2010. Print.
• Harden, Brenda Jones. “Safety and Stability for Foster Children: A Developmental Perspective.” The Future of Children 14.1 (2004): 31-47. Web. 26 Sept. 2016.
• Kools, Susan M. “Adolescent Identity Development in Foster Care.” Family Relations 46.3 (1997): 263-271. JSTOR. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.
• Maas, Henry, and Richard Engler. “Highlights of The Foster Care Project: Introduction.” Child Welfare 38 (1999): 3-9. JSTOR. Web. 25 Sept. 2016.

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