M3 Research Design Critique Report

Over 600,000 children in the United States are in the foster care system. Reasons include, abuse, neglect and abandonment. These children lack nurturing environments and stable homes. Children within the foster care system have more mental, physical and developmental problems. It is imperative to understand the challenges children entering the foster care system are exposed to. The system works best when children are provided nurturing, and short-term care until they can be placed back home safely or a permanent adoptive family. For many children, however, the stay is longer, with 30% remaining in temporary care for over two years. Staying in the system is detrimental to the child’s well-being. The foster care system is an unsuccessful intervention for children that cultivates development, health and mental issues.

No two children in foster care have the same background. The youths can vary by the age when placed into care, the number of times they were put into care, the quality of the home and family they lived with, and the youths own emotional outlooks (Zlotnick 539). They can develop abandonment issues due to being separated from their biological parents, and stunted emotional growth due to the trauma that foster care puts on a young child. Children need to be raised in a stable and safe environment, and while plenty of foster care parents are loving and nurturing to the child, they may still be affected by being raised by multiple families in a negative way. Every year, over 1 million children experience maltreatment, and about half of these children enter foster care (Greeson et al. 92). Those who enter foster care have usually encountered multiple traumatic events, from either their parents or another caregiver in their lives.

Notably, children placed with a foster care family have better outcomes than children who are institutionalized. For instance, research conducted by Bos et al., (2011), shows children sheltered with a foster family are more likely to develop a secure attachment than those placed in institutional care. Also, according to Cashmere and Paxman (2006), children who experience stability in a foster care setting are more likely to have improved academic achievements and cognitive abilities. So, “a stable foster care placement can have positive effects on a vulnerable youth population compared to the alternatives of living in institutional or group care or in a home with neglect or maltreatment” (Lockwood, Friedman, & Christian, p. 310, 2015).

In America it is stated that 1 in every 84 children live in foster care circumstances via "Statistics on Foster Care". There is a numerous amount of contrasting children from various backgrounds and ages living within these special housing homes, and many are repeatedly in and out from unstable circumstances. As children grow and mature into the new faces of the world, they face many obstacles and tribulations that will alter their lives. Living in fostering homes is a substantial example and the effects of living in these institutions can truly be great.

In the John Burton Policy Brief on AB 12 the realities of education for foster youth are highlighted, “The rate at which foster youth complete high school (50 percent) is significantly lower than the rate at which their peers complete high school (70 percent),” (2011, p. 2). This affects chances for higher education including college degrees. This has a significant impact on the community as “aged-out” youth without services have more chance of risk for: homelessness, poverty, unemployment, going to jail, prostitution, substance abuse, early parenthood and untreated health conditions. Samuels and Pryce state that foster care has not always been a positive, developmentally appropriate experience. Youth who are

The foster care system in America negatively affects the lives of adolescents in the system mentally and physically. On any given day there are over 428,000 children in foster care and more than 20,000 kids age out of foster care with no permanent family; therefore, they are being left behind socially, educationally, mentally, and under developed for the real world. Foster care first started in the nineteen hundreds when Charles Loring Brace created the “Children’s Aid Society” in New York. Then later on the 1900’s, social agencies started to supervise and pay the foster children’s sponsors. However, back in foster care’s history and still today, the kids in the system experince abuse and become mentally unstable. One out of five kids

Nationwide, nearly 397,122 children live in foster care. In California, which has the largest foster care population than any other state, the number of foster youth has tripled in the last 20 years (Source: AFCARS Report 2013) due to certain circumstance such as; physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse or caretaker inability. Welfare workers turn over at continuing high rates, and many are underpaid, poorly trained, overworked and demoralized. Foster Care system welfare lacks providing services to prepare older youths in foster care in independent living are lacking. Many youths that exited the system discuss their experience such as, being let down, lack of role models, poor training programs, and lack of basic living skills. Foster

year (2014). Most of these youth struggle finding permanent housing that can afford, and some

Many foster children’s education is declining because of constant moving around. The children have no control to where they get to stay. They switch foster homes many times and then have to find a new school in the process. For instance, “...they are constantly moving school systems as well, sometimes setting them back a grade, or allowing them to feel out of place in school” (“Foster Care Homes and Their Affect on a Child 's Education”). Moving many times affects their time to study and learn something at school. They can not focus on what to learn 0.

Abundant amounts of children who have been in and out of foster care are known to have more behavioral problems than children not in the system. Whether we want to believe it or not, there are bad people in this world. Somehow some of these “bad people” become foster parents for the wrong reasons. Some take in foster kids for the extra income. This makes no sense to me considering foster parents make nearly no money. Their average pay is one dollar and five cents and hour (“The Foster Life”). This money and usually the foster parents own money are spent on the child. Foster parents like this are huge contributors to the impacting trauma on foster kids’ lifes. With lousy foster parents comes frequent moves between homes. Researchers have found that frequent moves in foster care can be detrimental to child development. Some caregivers would go as far as neglecting the child they are meant to be protecting. This furthers the consequences, and changes the child’s life for the worse. Due to these circumstances, Medicaid steps in and covers majority of foster kids. Studies have shown that children who are in foster care are twice as likely than non-foster children to form behavioral issues (Becker, Jordan, and Larsen). There are other down sides to foster care other than a irresponsible caregiver. There are hundreds of children who need placement in foster homes. This leads to

Helping these vulnerable children access the services, interaction, and the stability needed for them to grow-up to being successful members of society can be provided with foster placement. If the process is well planned and if the foster parents are given adequate support, the foster care system can be a valuable resource for abused and neglected children (Crosson-Tower, 2014, p. 321).

With future policy and practice enhancements geared towards addressing the gap of attaining higher education for foster youth, more support programs will be implemented. Ultimately, to prevent further widening of the gap to attain higher education for foster youth, it is important to address the current existing systemic obstacles by focusing specifically on post-secondary education

It is well know that foster Children have a very hard time finding a permanent home and adjusting to their new home. The majority of foster children go through this process of finding a home at a very young age. For most of these children it occurs during very young age which is the most important time for develop mental processes. Therefore foster children are at risk of cognitive and social- emotional development delays. (Jacobson et. al 2013). As mentioned in the article “research has underscored the importance of early, nurturing caregiver environments on brain development, and the importance of positive brain-environment interaction during the first 2 years of life has also been documented by research on foster care and adoption”(Jacobson et. al 2013). The article currently looks at, specifically the issue of foster children’s cognitive development and social- emotional functioning specifically of children ages between 2 to 3 years of age. There has been previous research done on this article. A research done to look at this issue was one done in Romanian were 136 institutionalized children were randomly selected. These children were selected to continue to be institutionalized or placed in foster care. In this study, the foster parents were selected and trained,

“The direction in which education starts a man will determine his future in life”(Plato). Plato’s assessment was accurate, because the importance of learning enables individuals to put their potentials to optimal use. The foster care system can handicap the educational achievement of children. This handicap can follow those children beyond the scholastic world and into the professional world. Today, seventy percent of teens that break away from foster care report that they want to attend college, but less than fifty percent graduate from high school. Fewer than twenty percent of those who graduate from high school actually enroll in college, and of those less than three-percent graduate with a degree. Post emancipation, fifty percent are