Foster Care Versus Institutionalization Research Paper

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Does Foster Care Have an Effect in Children Physically, Mentally, Emotionally and Socially?

Today, there are almost 438,000 children placed in foster care in the United States and more than 687,000 children were assigned to foster care during 2016 (Foster care, 2016). The research to date also indicates that children in the United States remain in foster care on average almost 2 years and at least 6% have been in foster care for 5 years or more (Foster care, 2018). Although there is a near consensus that foster care provides a superior environment for young people compared to institutionalization, a growing body of scholarship cites the adverse effect that the experience can have on children’s physical, mental, emotional and social growth. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of the relevant literature concerning these issues, followed by what can be done to help these young people avoid these suboptimal outcomes. Finally, a summary of the research and key findings concerning the effects of foster care on children are presented in the conclusion.

Why is this topic important?

The early childhood through adolescent years are a critical formative period in young people’s lives, and they can experience a wide range of negative events and episodes even under the most nurturing environment with their biological parents. It is not surprising, then, that young people who have been placed in foster care settings can suffer from a wide array of physical, mental, emotional and social problems that may have lifelong implications. This topic is important because there is a consensus among social science researchers that additional studies in this area are needed, but what is known for certain at present is that young people who transition into adulthood from foster care are at increased risk of suboptimal outcomes and self-harming behaviors during their young adulthood (Foster care, 2018).

Furthermore, notwithstanding the prevailing belief that most foster care children are very young and therefore unable to appreciate or fully understand their circumstances, the average age of children entering the foster care system is 7 years (Foster care, 2018), meaning they have developed the cognitive abilities to recognize their extraordinary situations.

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Moreover, minority children account for more than half of the children entering the foster care system in the United States, placing these already marginalized young people at even greater risk of experiencing poor outcomes during their young adulthood (Foster care, 2018). Taken together, it is clear that children placed in foster care have a fundamentally different childhood experience compared to their peers who live with their biological parents in so-called “forever homes,” and these issues are discussed further below.

Summary of research literature

The persistently high level of children being placed in foster care has resulted in increased attention by social scientists and helping professionals concerning the effects such placements have on children’s short- and long-term development. The research to date makes it clear that foster care children are in need of inordinately frequent and intense mental health support for a variety of disorders and developmental problems that negatively affect their social interactions with others (Stott, 2012). In this regard, Classen, Landeverk, Ganger et al. (1998) emphasize that, “Several studies, using clinical assessments and standardized measures have demonstrated that children entering foster care exhibit a significant number of behavior problems and adaptive functioning deficits, far in excess of that expected in the general population” (p. 283).

It is especially noteworthy that the degree to which young people succumb to such behavior and adaptive functioning deficits may be a function of how long they have been in the foster care system (Almas, Degnan, Walker et al., 2015). . For example, a study by Windsor, Benigno, Wing et al. (2011) found that children who had been placed in institutional care for….....

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