Foster Care By: Heather Smith

What is Foster Care? A temporary arrangement in which a minor is placed because his or her biological parents are unable to take proper care of them. After being placed in foster care, the birth parents lose all legal rights of the child and the child is eligible for adoption. In 2003 there was 530,000 children living in foster care. Types of Foster care: Kinship: Kinship care refers to the care of the child and/or children by relatives. Close friends could also be considered kinship care. This type of care is favored because it maintains a child’s connections with his/her family. Non-Kinship: Is just the opposite of Kinship care in which a child is placed with individuals of whom they do not know.

Neglect 42% Other 5% Legal offense 7% Sexual abuse 8% Physical abuse 12% Caretaker absent or incapacitated 26% What is Neglect? “Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caregiver, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Reasons for Foster Care placement

Child Development : Health and Emotion Regulation Health: Adolescents in foster care have a higher chance of having poor health compared to those not in foster care. 45% of minors in foster care today are adolescents (ages 10-17). 12% of children in foster care receive no regular health care and 34% have not received immunizations. Women who come from foster care are more likely to engage in sexual behaviors at an earlier age and have more sexual partners than a woman who did not come from foster care. There is an increased risk for poor nutrition, inadequate physical activity and tobacco use for those in foster care. Abnormalities in growth and development have been detected in foster care children, such as short stature and vision and hearing problems. 60% of children in foster care experience some sort of developmental delay. Majority of “graduated” foster care individuals have no health insurance. Emotion Regulation: Children who were abused earlier in life are more likely to develop insecure attachments with caregivers. Positive parenting is shown to be positively associated with a child’s emotion regulation and behavior. Children who lack emotion regulation have a harder time making relationships with peers. A child who is less securely attached will show more guarded emotional expressions towards caregiver.

Academic Development Children in foster care show less advanced literacy skills, higher rates of special education placements, more academic failure and school dropout ratings than children not in foster care. Children entering foster care tend to have more language and learning problems because of parents lack of caring for child. KITS ( Kids in Transition to School) is designed to help children during the summer before starting school as well as during their first two months of kindergarten. In KITS, children are taught emotion and behavior regulation skills. With the help of interventions, children had better outcomes in their literacy, social, and self-regulatory skills. Foster care children have an increased risk for absenteeism in school, causing poor grades. 68% of alumni foster children attended 3 or more schools. Individuals from foster care are less likely to attend college. If they do attend, studies found that they graduate at a slower rate than those not from foster care.

Behavior Development Foster care children have more behavior problems then the general population of children, both internalizing and externalizing. Those who are in kinship care generally have less problems than those in non- kinship care. Targeted age = years old. Foster boys presented more behavior problems than their classmates, whereas, they found no differences for girls. Runaway Behavior: 6% of children (ages 6-16) exiting foster care did so by running away. 42% of participants in study ran back to biological families, 39% ran to a friend.

References Lewit, E.M. (1993). Children in Foster Care. The Future of Children, 3(3) Gramkowski, B., Kools, S., Paul, S., Boyer, B.C., Monasterio, E., Robbins, N. (2009). Health Risk Behavior of Youth in Foster Care. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 22 (2), Kools, S., Kennedy, C. (2003). Foster Child Health and Development: Implications for Primary Care. Pediatric Nursing, 29 (1), 39. Healey, V. C., Fisher, A. P. (2011). Young Children in foster care and the development of favorable outcomes. Children and Youth Services Review, 33, Bernedo, M. I., Salas, D. M., Garcia-Martin, A. M., Fuentes, J.M. (2012). Teacher Assessment of Behavior problems in foster care children. Children and Youth Services Review, 34, Dozier, M., Zeanah, C. H., & Bernard, K. (2013). Infants and Toddlers in Foster Care. Child Development Perspectives, 7(3), Evans, D.L. (2004). Academic Achievement of Students in Foster Care: Impeded or Improved? Psychology in the Schools, 41 (5), Fasulo, J. S., Cross, P. T., Mosley, P., & Leavey, J. (2002). Adolescent Runaway Behavior in Specialized Foster Care. Children and Youth Services Review, 24 (8),