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Effects of foster care on children research papers
Effect of foster care on children essay
The effects of foster care
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Even though most people don’t know, there are children and adults all around us that have been in the foster care program. More than half a million of today's youth are currently in foster care. The foster care program is for children that are taken away from their families due to unsafe living conditions and are placed with a temporary family until they are either placed back with their families or adopted. Many foster children are bounced around from home to home and never stay in one place for very long and this at times causes there to be behavioral problems with the said child. Foster care has been a major part of my life growing up. Although I am not a foster child, nor was I in the past, my family and I were a foster family, along with all three of my aunts. My aunts have homed over one hundred foster children, and have even adopted some along the way. My family and I have had two foster boys who have both been adopted and now have the family they deserve to have. …show more content…
While it is important to take these children and give them the proper care needed, it is also very traumatizing for anyone to be taken away from their parents/family. After being taken from their families they are placed in a potential foster family, never knowing how long they will stay there. It could be for one night, one week, one month, or even a year. Foster care has many effects on children in the system. It is very traumatizing for a child to be taken away from their family without notice and placed in a family with strangers. Children in foster care have a higher rate of substance use and a higher delinquency rate. Children in the foster care program often feel unwanted and believe that no one cares so they begin to act out in hopes of getting some
One of the biggest misconceptions that we have in our country is that foster care is a great thing; well, it’s not. There are so many flaws in our foster care system to even consider it a good idea. With constant reports of abuse, depression, lack of stability, to even the terrible after effects of the foster care system, like homelessness and incarceration; the foster care system hurts more than it helps. Our foster care system is bad for America, but most of all, our children.
This paper will contain research done about foster care, including a brief history and progressing along to the system today. This research interested me because it is a professional career option after graduation. I found both positives and negatives about the foster care system that children and foster parents go through on a daily basis. As the paper progresses I will be explaining these positives and negatives in more detail. Throughout the paper I will be referencing different scholarly sources that explain foster care in different ways. Overall, this paper will show different aspects that the general public may never know about foster care.
There is nearly 400,000 children in out-of-home care in the United States right now (Children’s Right). Just about every day children are being shipped in and out of foster homes and group homes. Most people want the best for children in foster care and decide to take care of them until their parents can possibly recover. The foster care system can have both a negative or positive effect on children, foster parents, and biological parents because of the gaps in the system. Foster cannot not be avoided but the some aspects of the foster care system can be avoided if the missing gaps were filled.
Some parents in the world do not discipline their children and do not care what the children. All they care about are them selves. At that point the social workers take the child and put them in foster homes with complete and total strangers. Some companies just put kids with people who do not care about the children just what they get paid. They just let the children go off and do what they want and do not supervise the children’s activities. The social workers should do more thoroughly background checks. There should also be more supervision in foster homes instead of little supervision, and the workers should visit the home and the children more often than they actually do.
Addressing the needs of children in foster care has been an issue that has tried to be addressed in many ways. In 2001, approximately 300,000 children entered the foster care system, with the average time spent in placement equaling 33 months (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d.). Statistically, the longer a child is in the foster care system, the greater number of placements they will have, and instability increases each year (Bass Shields, & Behrman, n.d). I recently read a novel by a girl who was placed into the system at age two, and by age 12 she had already experienced 14 different placements (Rhodes-Courter, 2007). Stories such as this one are not uncommon in the foster care system, especially if the child is a member of a sibling group or
One thing that catches my attention during my research about foster care adoption I thought once the foster children find a home their suffering will come to an end but I was so wrong and learning more about their situation it open up my eyes to the other tragedy that will continue to follow them wherever home they go. Some kids even though they found a new
In todays’ society many Americans never think about our foster care system. Foster care is when a child is temporarily placed with another family. This child may have been abused, neglected, or may be a child who is dependent and can survive on their own but needs a place to stay. Normally the child parents are sick, alcohol or drug abusers, or may even be homeless themselves. We have forgotten about the thousands of children who are without families and living in foster homes. Many do not even know how foster care came about. A few of the earliest documentation of foster care can be found in the Old Testament. The Christian church put children into homes with widowers and then paid them using collection from the church congregation. The system that the church had in place was actually successful, and was continued to be used until English Poor Law eventually regulated family foster care in the U.S.
The impact of growing up in foster care creates a plethora of barriers, inhibiting a foster youths chances of attending college and finding academic success. It is estimated that 65% of foster youth will emancipate into homelessness, less than 3% will go to college and 51% will be unemployed (Children Uniting Nations, 2015). Serval major factors serve as barriers including home mobility, school mobility, mental health concerns, social difficulties, lack of financial support, lack of access to college, and social difficulties.
Imagine waking up everyday in a home where there is nobody you can call mom or dad. Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home, or private home of a state-certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent". The placement of the child is usually arranged through the government or a social-service agency. The institution, group home or foster parent is compensated for expenses. The state will inform through the family court and child protection agency stand in loco parentis to the minor, making all legal decisions while the foster parent is responsible for the day-to-day care of the minor throughout the time the child is in the system.
Based off the attention from modern media, youth homelessness has been on an unfortunate upslope in the United States within the past decade. Various factors tie into why this issue is becoming more prominent such as low income households being unable to afford children, LGBT youth rejection, and domestic abuse leading to children leaving home. Now, vagrancy has a severely negative impact on the development of young people as it inhibits them from developing academically, socially, and mentally and can also expose them to diseases and potentially various types of abuse, such as sexual and substance abuse. This is an issue that should be addressed, for the rising generations are America’s future, and so investing in the overall well-being of the
which prove that a foster home is not the solution to help children in need. Although the
To many outsiders, the foster care system may appear to be a safe haven for those children that are abused or abandoned by their birth family. This is correct, but the system with which it is based, has many flaws. A background check is mandatory for all foster parents, but a test to see if a child 's temperament matches that caregiver 's parenting style, is not. Now, this is seen as a minor issue, but there is not enough evidence to support this. Plus, there are many other, much worse reasons, why the system is not perfect. Altogether, the foster care system and a multitude of its rules are flawed and may actually be negatively affecting foster children.
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
Children are our future and they should be given every possible opportunity to succeed in life even if they are born into disadvantaged situations. Sometimes the families of certain children can’t provide as much as other children’s families and this can create a gap in the achievement and development of these children. Those disadvantaged children need special programing that accommodates for the lack of cognitive and social development that if not properly addressed could lead to poor school performance and delinquency.
According to the International Foster Care Organization “Foster care is a way of providing a family life for children who cannot live with their own parents.”(2004) Foster care is supposed to provide temporary care while parents get help dealing with problems, or to help children or young people through a difficult period in their lives. Children will return home once their parents are able to provide a safe enviorment for them. However if parent are unable to resolve the issues that cause their child in foster care their children may stay in long-term foster care, some may be adopted, and others will move on to live independently. (IFCO, 2004) Foster care has been a problem for many years and although there have been many attempts to improve it; it there still seems to be negatively impacting