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Essay on Effect of Foster Care on Children

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Effect of Foster Care on Children
Human Development
March 30, 2011

Introduction/ Problem Statement Each year 542,000 children nationwide live temporarily with foster parents, while their own parents struggle to overcome an addiction to alcohol, drugs, illness, financial hardship or other difficulties (Mennen, Brensilver, & Trickett, 2010.) The maltreatment they experienced at home, the shock of being separated from their birth parents, and the uncertainty they face as they enter the foster care system leave many children feeling abandoned or lost. Children have many needs, but while in foster care these needs are not always met. A supportive family environment is created for those children whose parents are not able to take the …show more content…

Other children that are found as “hard-to-place” are children suffering from AIDS or HIV; for the fear that it may spread to others within the home (Cheng, 2010.)

Kinship care Placement With child placement becoming more difficult everyday, the practice of kin placement has increased significantly within the past two decades. Kinship care is the placement of a maltreated or otherwise vulnerable youth in the care and protection of a known relative or adult with a recognized kin bond (Ryan, Hong, Herz,, & Hernandez, 2010.) Today approximately 26% of children in foster care are in kinship care placement (Cheng, 2010.)

Life in Foster Care The life for a child in foster care is much different than any other child’s. While growing up children look up to their father or mother. They aspire to be like them and follow in their footsteps. For the children placed in foster care all they see is that their parents could not take care of them. They will not have the memoires of growing up with their family, but instead memories of the different homes they have been transferred too. Foster parents love and care for all of the children that come into their homes, but it’s hard for the children to accept someone who moves in and out of their lives. “Traumatic experiences and an increased susceptibility for further wounds from unstable environments created in foster care continue to increase the vulnerability of this already fragile

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