VIEWS OF FOSTERCHILDREN ABOUT CONTACTS WITH PARENTS AND RELATIVES

This paper presents the results of research on the views of children about contacts with their birth parents and relatives. The views of children are seen through their experience in contacts and the wishes of children that relate to future contacts. The results show that children in foster care have positive attitude to the contacts and that no child wants to terminate the contacts maintained with the parents and relatives. A number of children want a greater number of contacts, or to establish contact with persons with whom there is no actual contact. Also, most of the children had the opportunity to participate in the planning and realization of contacts and the children who participated recognize their participation as an important issue.

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Child Maltreatment in the United States: A Challenge to Social Institutions. By Saad Z. Nagi, Children in Foster Care: A Longitudinal Investigation. By David Fanshel and Eugene B. Shinn and The Adoption Triangle: The Effects of the Sealed Record on Adoptees, Birth Parents, and Adoptive Parents. By Arthur D. Sorosky, Annette Baran, and Reuben Pannor

Children & Schools ◽

10.1093/cs/2.1.4 ◽

1979 ◽

Vol 2 (1) ◽

pp. 4-80

Author(s):

Lela B. Costin

Keyword(s):

United States ◽

Foster Care ◽

Child Maltreatment ◽

Social Institutions ◽

The United States ◽

Adoptive Parents ◽

Birth Parents ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Longitudinal Investigation

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Health Care of Children in Foster Care

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.93.2.335 ◽

1994 ◽

Vol 93 (2) ◽

pp. 335-338 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Behavioral Problems ◽

Extended Family ◽

School Achievement ◽

Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽

Socioeconomic Background ◽

Permanency Planning ◽

State Custody ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Children In Foster Care

The foster care system in America has evolved as a means of providing protection and shelter for children who require out-of-home placement.1 It is designed to be a temporary service, with a goal of either returning children home or arranging for suitable adoptive homes. In recent years, child welfare agencies have been directing greater efforts toward supporting families in crisis to prevent foster care placements whenever feasible and to reunify families as soon as possible when placements cannot be avoided. Increasingly, extended family members are being recruited and assisted in providing kinship care for children when their biologic parents cannot care for them. However, during the past decade the number of children in foster care has nearly doubled, despite landmark federal legislation designed to expedite permanency planning for children in state custody.2 It is estimated that by 1995 more than 500 000 children will be in foster care.3 In large part, this unrelenting trend is the result of increased abuse and neglect of children occurring in the context of parental substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and human immunodeficiency virus infection.4 As a result, a disproportionate number of children placed in foster care come from that segment of the population with the fewest social and financial resources and from families that have few personal and limited extended family sources of support.5 It is not surprising then that children entering foster care are often in poor health. Compared with children from the same socioeconomic background, they suffer much higher rates of serious emotional and behavioral problems, chronic physical disabilities, birth defects, developmental delays, and poor school achievement.6-13

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Challenges of Assessing Maltreated Children Coming into Foster Care

The Scientific World JOURNAL ◽

10.1155/2016/5986835 ◽

2016 ◽

Vol 2016 ◽

pp. 1-9 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Rachel Pritchett ◽

Harriet Hockaday ◽

Beatrice Anderson ◽

Claire Davidson ◽

Christopher Gillberg ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Cognitive Task ◽

Controlled Trial ◽

Assessment Data ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Level Of Concern ◽

Randomised Controlled ◽

Psychiatric Problems

Children who have experienced early adversity have been known to be at risk of developing cognitive, attachment, and mental health problems; therefore, it is crucial that children entering foster care can be properly assessed as early as possible. There are known difficulties in assessing children in foster care, for example, in finding a reliable informant. An ongoing randomised controlled trial in Glasgow, Scotland, recruiting infants entering foster care, provides a unique opportunity to explore some of the issues which need to be considered when assessing these children. The assessment data of 70 infants entering care is described while exploring the reliability of foster carers as informants and the importance of infant engagement with tasks. This group of infants was shown to be having more problems than children from the general population. While correlations were found between a carer’s level of concern about a child and the severity of a child’s problem, there were still a number of children displaying worrying problem scores whom foster carers did not report concern. The child’s engagement in the cognitive task showed associations with the child’s attainment on the task. Findings emphasise the importance of a holistic assessment for these children and all should be considered as potential cases with Maltreatment-Associated Psychiatric Problems (MAPP).

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Uniform Adoption Laws: A Public Health Perspective

Pittsburgh Journal of Environmental and Public Health Law ◽

10.5195/pjephl.2013.42 ◽

2013 ◽

Vol 7 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Deborah E. Crum

Keyword(s):

Public Health ◽

Foster Care ◽

The United States ◽

Adoption Process ◽

Health Concerns ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Viable Solution ◽

Unplanned Pregnancies ◽

State Adoption

Adoption has long been seen as the "perfect solution" for numerous parties. Traditionally viewed, adoption is no more than a social service procedure; however, viewed more broadly, adoption provides a solution to the public health concerns of unplanned pregnancies and foster care populations. In the United States, the power to establish and administer the legal and procedural systems applicable to the adoption process is granted to the individual states, due to their responsibility to regulate the welfare of children. Therefore, like other areas of family law, adoption is a state-created statute. Conflicts between states are not uncommon because of the discrepancies in adoption laws amongst the states. These discrepancies between different state adoption laws lead to confusion, forum shopping, and most importantly, negative attitudes and reactions toward adoption. Ultimately, these discrepancies hurt the only innocent party involved: children in need of a family. As a solution to multiple public health concerns, adoption laws would benefit from a uniform adoption act. This Note will examine the extensive issues resulting from the discrepancies between state adoption laws and address how a uniform adoption act could significantly promote adoption as a viable solution to two public health concerns: the increasing number of unplanned pregnancies and the significant number of children in foster care awaiting permanent placements. Section I explores public health concerns that would benefit from a uniform adoption act. Section II discusses adoption laws as state responsibilities and addresses the major consequences of having different state adoption laws. Section III details past efforts to overcome the differences in state adoption laws, including the Uniform Adoption Act of 1994. Finally, Section IV analyzes the need for some form of uniform adoption laws if adoption is to remain a viable solution to public health concerns, namely the increasing number of unplanned pregnancies and significant number of children in the foster care system awaiting adoption.

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Receptive Vocabulary Development of Children Placed in Foster Care and Children Who Remained With Birth Parents After Involvement With Child Protective Services

Child Maltreatment ◽

10.1177/1077559518808224 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 24 (1) ◽

pp. 107-112 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lindsay Zajac ◽

K. Lee Raby ◽

Mary Dozier

Keyword(s):

Foster Care ◽

Child Protective Services ◽

Language Skills ◽

Receptive Language ◽

Receptive Vocabulary ◽

Protective Services ◽

Birth Parents ◽

Caregiver Education ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Parent Child Interactions

Children who experience maltreatment are more likely than nonmaltreated children to demonstrate deficits in early receptive language skills that negatively impact their later academic achievement, social competence, and behavioral adjustment. It remains unclear whether placement in foster care affects children’s early receptive language skills. In the current study, we examined whether children with Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement who were in foster care ( n = 176) had more advanced receptive vocabulary than children with CPS involvement who resided with their birth parents ( n = 144). Results demonstrated that children in foster care had higher receptive vocabulary scores at ages 36 and 48 months than children who stayed with their birth parents. Group differences were not significant after controlling for caregiver education level, marital status, and household income. These findings suggest that placement in foster care may be associated with meaningful improvements in children’s receptive vocabulary among children with experiences of CPS involvement, and birth parents might benefit from increased supports to promote parent–child interactions that facilitate language development.

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Keeping secrets: how children in foster care manage stigma

Adoption & Fostering ◽

10.1177/0308575918823436 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 43 (1) ◽

pp. 35-45 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

Diane Dansey ◽

Danielle Shbero ◽

Mary John

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Foster Care ◽

Young People ◽

Birth Parents ◽

Children And Young People ◽

Children In Foster Care ◽

Previous Edition ◽

Current Article ◽

Children In Care ◽

The Impact

This article follows on from ‘How children in foster care engage with loyalty conflict: presenting a model of processes informing loyalty’ ( Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018 ), published in the previous edition of this journal. This model highlighted the themes of stigma and secrecy for children in care, which it was felt warranted further consideration in their own right. The current article shares further quotations from the children in relation to these themes, which add to the evidence of what children are saying in relation to stigma and bullying. Most importantly, it presents this topic in a manner that stimulates thought around the implications of what children are saying for their broader mental health and resilience and what might therefore be most supportive. Children in foster care are subject to stigma in relation to being in care and not living with their birth parents. The impact of this is important to explore, especially for those who already experience higher levels of disadvantage than other children. Themes of stigma and secrecy emerged from a recent grounded theory study that was conducted with 15 children and young people in foster care ( Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018 ). These quotations highlighted how stigma was being internalised by children, how they had experienced, or believed that their care status would lead to, bullying and how some of them described keeping their foster care status a secret as a result. This article seeks to share the voices of these children, look at the existing literature in this area and consider the possible impact that stigma and secrecy may have on them. Implications for practice are discussed and the need for more targeted research is highlighted.

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Children in Foster Care in California: An Examination of Medicaid Reimbursed Health Services Utilization

PEDIATRICS ◽

10.1542/peds.89.6.1230 ◽

1992 ◽

Vol 89 (6) ◽

pp. 1230-1237 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Neal Halfon ◽

Gale Berkowitz ◽

Linnea Klee

Keyword(s):

Mental Health ◽

Foster Care ◽

Health Services ◽

Service Utilization ◽

Mental Health Problems ◽

Comparison Group ◽

Outpatient Service ◽

Utilization Rate ◽

Number Of Children ◽

Children In Foster Care

The number of children in foster care in California doubled from 27 534 in 1980 to more than 62 419 in 1988, representing approximately 1% of the child population in the state. Past studies have domonstrated that children in foster care have high rates of medical and mental health problems. An examination of all Medi-Cal-paid claims was undertaken to describe the utilization of health services by children in foster care. Although children in foster care represent 4% of Medi-Cal-eligible children younger than 18 years of age, they account for approximately 5% of children using Medi-Cal services and 6.7% of expenditures, representing a 23% greater utilization rate and 41% greater expenditure rate than all children covered by Medi-Cal. Using the entire Medi-Cal population younger than 18 years of age as a comparison group, examination of inpatient and outpatient service utilization for specific condition categories showed few differences between children in foster care and the comparison group except for mental health service utilization, where children in foster care were much higher users of services.

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