There are several reasons why children enter foster care such as abandonment, caregiver’s death, domestic violence, medical neglect, parent’s incarceration, physical abuse, sexual abuse, truancy, and voluntary placement. Sadly, many homes have more than one of the following issues and a child enters the foster care system for numerous reasons. Annually tens of thousands of children in the United States are placed in foster care. These children are often burdened by the unprecedented levels of domestic violence, physical, emotional, and mental abuse in their homes.
Oftentimes, seeking a more nurturing environment amongst relatives for the child is unsuccessful and the foster care system is a last recourse. This paper discusses the …show more content…
Neglect has very profound and long-lasting consequences on all aspects of child development to include the lack of ability to form attachment, delayed physical development, and antisocial behaviors. Children that are subjected to an environment that limits the amount of emotional support creates difficulties for a child to develop the brain connections that facilitate language and vocabulary development, and therefore may impair communication skills.
Researchers also have begun to explore why, given similar conditions, some children experience long-term consequences of abuse and neglect while others emerge relatively unscathed. The ability to cope, and even thrive, following a negative experience is often referred to as “resilience.” It is important to note that resilience is not an inherent trait in children but results from a mixture of both risk and protective factors that cause a child’s positive or negative reaction to adverse experiences. A number of protective and promotive factors individually, within a family, or within a community may contribute to an abused or neglected child’s resilience. These include positive attachment, self-esteem, intelligence, emotion regulation, humor, and independence (Shaffer, …show more content…
In regards to emotional abuse, conducting new studies would give more insight that relates to the various forms of behavior disorders and developmental delays in children that are placed in foster care. Conducting in-depth research that examines the timing, duration, severity, and nature of effects over the life course in a variety of cultural environments would be quite beneficial to the social work