Long Term Foster Care
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Older youth preparing to emancipate from the foster care system are often served in residential treatment settings where they have limited opportunities to practice skills for independent living in a community setting. Stepping these youth down to less restrictive environments such as treatment foster care is a growing trend, especially for youth with mental health issues. Yet, few studies have explored the youths perspective on making this transition (Narendorf, 2012). Studies have found that foster care feel powerless, undervalued, and without a voice (Gilbertson & Barber, 2003; Rosenwald & Bronstein, 2008; Wilson, Sinclair, & Gibbs, 2000). Furthermore, foster care report feeling stigmatized by the media (Rosenwald & Bronstein, 2008; Sheldon, 2002), disrespected by agency personnel (Maclay, Bunce, & Purves, 2006; Whiting & Huber, 2007), ostracized by their peers (Kelley, 1993), and misunderstood by their own family and friends (Farmer, Lipscombe, & Moyers, 2005). Foster care is where children and young people below the eighteen years who are no longer able to live with their families are placed with alternate caregivers on a short or long term basis. In the paper, youth will go through different experiences during their time in foster care. My research question is how do adolescence that have been in the foster care system long term make sense or describe their experiences in foster care? My hypothesis is do the children feel abandon or hurt by their families that put them in foster care system. The following literature reviews attempt to demonstrate and support the hypothesis.
In the research article by Paczkowski (2009), there are four steps on analyses with children and foster care. The first domain of analyses examined whether childrens lower levels of congnitive development act as a stressor that contributes to greater negative impact and lower levels of psychological well-being among adoptive parents. The second domain of analyses sought to determine how childrens risk factors, including experiences of abuse and neglect, previous placements, age at adoption, and living with birth parents, ultimately impact adoptive parents in the years following placement. The third domain of analyses set out to explore child behavior problems among children adopted from foster care and how two moderators affect how parents react to child-related stressors. The final set of analyses focused on positive impact. These results of the study have shown that parents who are faced with greater child behavior problems experience more negative long-term outcomes. The findings may say that the adoptive parents are going up against their childrens behaviors. They may also realize a sense of loss associated with missing the early years of their childrens lives, a sentiment expressed by many parents during the interviews.
In the research article by Barber (2005) two interrelated studies into childrens adjustment to long-term foster care; the first was a tracking study of children entering care over a 1-year period, and the second was a consumer feedback study. The placement movements and psychosocial well-being of children in the tracking study were monitored over a 2-year period: at intake, 4-months, 8-months, 1-year, and 2-years. The second study used a semi structured interview schedule to obtain the feedback of children who had been in foster care for a minimum of 2 years. The final sample at baseline contained 121 boys and 114 girls with a mean age of 10.8 years and an age range of 4-17 years. Excluded from the sample were children on detention orders, children placed in supported accommodation or referred for family preservation services. Also excluded were those referred for respite from a continuing placement and those with placements expected to last for less than 2 weeks. The final sample consisted of 129 children who were new to care and 105 who were reentering care or changing placement. The status of one child could not be determined. This group of children represents the entire cohort of children meeting the selection criteria referred via the central referral agency for both metropolitan and rural areas of South Australia during the study period. At Times 2, 3, 4 and 5, there were 164, 139, 126 and 109 children remaining in the foster care system. For children reentering care or changing care, time in care was calculated from the point of referral into this study (the new placement). The results in this study supported the hypothesis that relative percentage of the attachments would correspond to those reported by infant researchers. The percentages of this study are: This least desirable placement