Foster Parenting Research Paper

Although foster parenting is one of the most rewarding experiences, it can also be an exhausting journey. The parent must have compassion, understanding, and tolerance for the children. It involves nurturing and providing a safe environment to previously traumatized or neglected children. And the children must grow and learn from their experiences. Both the parents and the children must overcome the frustration and exhaustion in the system. Inadequate service and training can lead to poor family bonding. Therefore, a child needs nurturing to be a functional citizen of society. The foster care system is supposed to offer a family, not perpetrators. However, there are some foster parents who contribute to the child’s behavior, in which affects

children in the long-term. Without proper guidance, the children become delinquents and perpetrators themselves. Problems in the foster care system impacts the children caught in the system; and if it is not addressed, the consequence is a weak relationship between the parent and the child.
Today, there are more than half a million children in foster care in the United States. These children come from various backgrounds on the basis of race, color, age, gender identity, and disability. Some of these children are homeless, while others are neglected by their biological parents.
The foster care system has inadequate services and resources. Although most programs are federally funded through Federal Medicaid, some foster parents are ineligible and under-qualified. In fact, there are only a limited number of legal requirements for foster parents: they have to be older than 18 years old, have to be in good health, and have a Police Clearance Certificate. Meanwhile, non-kinship foster parents are obliged to complete a pre-service training. In addition, foster care agencies organize support for the foster child, optimize contacts with birth family, and train foster parents. However, they can provide poor training. Carrie Friedman, who runs the the Child Welfare League of America’s national database of child welfare statistics, identifies that having thousands of kids in foster care is expensive (Nakyanzi 1). As the number of foster children increased, child welfare advocates argue that the foster system is in need of a reform so that children spend less time in foster homes and that would provide a proper transition to young adults from foster care to independent living. Since more children also become victims of violence or sexual abuse in the foster care, some advocates also encourage the public to strengthen the impoverished communities to protect children.
Because of the internal systematic problems, foster parents abuse and neglect the children. Child welfare officials are obligated to provide children who have suffered from abuse or neglect with appropriate homes. Unfortunately, The Children’s Rights Organization reveals that there were 4 million reports of child maltreatment in the United States. Based on the overall results, the data concludes that more than 78 percent of the perpetrators of maltreatment were parents acting alone, together, or with other individuals (“Child Abuse and Neglect” 1) . When children are removed from their home and placed in foster care, it is also assumed that the children are no longer in danger. Parents who lack training and compassion end up maltreating the children. Some of these parents are also after the children’s reimbursements, so they do not take proper care of them. Furthermore, the system can fail to recognize child abuse or negligence during routine checks. From the data of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, study has shown that there is an increasing rate of maltreatment of children in foster care systems, especially at the hands of their foster parents. Of the eleven participants in this study, seven were abused physically, sexually, or both in foster care (Morton 222-223).
Due to abuse, foster children feel disempowerment and anger, resulting in high mobility, and difficulty transitioning out of residential and lock-down facilities. When the system recognizes maltreatment, officials offer some sort of family preservation services or reunite the children with their families.
Since foster children are traumatized by their past life. Despite less than 20 percent of children exhibited no medical conditions, over 80 percent of children had developmental, emotional, or behavioral problems (Halfon et al. 2). This assessment demonstrated higher rates of chronic multiple medical and mental health problems than previously reported. Due to previous trauma, the American Academy of Pediatrics found that the effects of maltreatment are difficulty with attachment, reduced physical development, unsociable behavior, and lack of stimulation.
Foster children exhibit internalizing and externalizing behaviors.

Compared to the average youth, foster children exhibit higher levels of behavioral problems. Internalizing symptoms can be marked with underlying feelings of fear or distress that may transform into anxiety and depression, which can be categorized by more passive behaviours like somatic complaints and withdrawal. In contrast, externalizing symptoms are associated with delinquent behavior or conduct disorder. From the secondary data of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, about 6,200 children were sampled and separated into two subsamples: the child protective service (CPS) sample consisting of families who had been involved with the child welfare system, and the long-term foster care (LTFC) sample which consists of youths who had been removed from their homes (Cooley et al. 206). This data indicates that foster children often have difficulty forming healthy, secure attachment relationships with foster families due to abuse, removal from their primary caregiver, and negative experiences in the foster care system. Moreover, the changes in adolescent externalizing and internalizing problems determine whether type of maltreatment, gender, and age are factors. Compared to those who have not faced maltreatment, youths who have experienced maltreatment have higher rates of externalizing and internalizing problems, especially adolescent boys. With age, externalizing problems tend to increase from

early adolescence to middle adolescence, then decrease in late adolescence (Mcwey et al. 1131). However, adolescents in long-term foster care with chronic illness have associated higher rates of internalizing and externalizing problems, and if depression mediates the relationship between physical health and externalizing behaviours. According to the research, depression is linked to delinquency. In fact, it mediated the effects of the overall health on delinquency. In this case, the findings convey that the system should offer reliable, comprehensive services, such as specialized assessments between protective and health care programs.
Foster parents also have trouble forming appropriate relationships with the children.

Due to externalizing behaviors, they can struggle with understanding the children, inducing family stress and less effective parenting. According to research on intervention and needs of foster children, programs that provided psycho-education for the foster parents about attachment broadened their understanding of the foster child’s behaviors and to apply the principles of attachment theory in parenting (Vanschoonlandt et al. 340-341). These interventions are effective in increasing positive parent–child interactions and acquiring parenting skills by promoting trust in availability of the foster parent, reflective function, self-esteem, autonomy, and family membership. Despite intervention, foster parents may despair over the limited information provided to them about their foster children’s past experiences, especially those who have experienced infant trauma and neglect. However, therapists can use their theoretical knowledge of infant trauma and neglect to discover the capacity to open a dialogue in the relationships between the therapist, the child, and the foster family. This scaffolding of curiosity during therapeutic moments clarifies for the therapist and the foster family about the child’s preverbal lived experience (Brown 299). In return, there is an increased mutuality, attunement, and sensitivity presents clues on awareness and knowledge about their foster child. Yet, family

therapy can trigger unpleasant memories from the child, in which can either traumatize the child more or overcome the trauma. Through family intervention and therapy, the foster family experiences their inner conversation about their own needs and desires in fostering.
Through experience and knowledge in the foster industry, agencies must serve the needs of children who have been removed from their homes due to abuse and neglect. They should ensure that every foster family are properly taken care of with professional support. By adequately preparing potential foster families, agencies need to require that every family goes through a well-structured training program. In doing so, they should envision to help the children to become healthy and productive members of the community. They must offer fostering, training, and other events for the community to become involved. Although not everyone can be a foster parent, the community should help nurture the children by volunteering in other ways and becoming informed about the foster care system.