Foster Home Abuse

The challenges of being in foster care are many. Foster parents are expected to provide a safe environment and care for the children placed within their homes. Unfortunately, this does not always occur and some children are abused and often put in a worse situation than they were previously in. A study was done containing maltreated children and nonmaltreated in foster care homes to determine the research question “whether selected physical health, mental health, or behavioral child characteristics reported either before or during foster care were associated with substantiated maltreatment in care?” ( Benedict, Zuravin, Somerfield, & Brandt, 1996) Grant 90-CA-1367 funded the study.
The research problem did not seem to be identified cleary. There were many issues such as children that were sexually abused, physically abused, and mentally abused and all of this information seemed to be scattered throughout the article. The article gives the reader a lot of information and left me feeling confused about whether they were really just trying to figure out the differences in these children by maltreatment, nonmaltreatemnt or the kind of abuse that they actually endured. The research provided is relevant to social work because it can help in a variety of ways.
The information about the kind of abuse in the foster family homes can help social workers and placement agencies put forth more or different training for the foster parents (especially if the foster child is a female). From a social work point of view it is important to understand why foster children behave the way they do and what is going on in their current environment. From a child’s point of view, foster care can be a scary place to be. Most of the time children are removed from their homes, schools, and friends. It can be confusing and stressful to lose everything they knew in an already unstable world and enter someone else’s house. Rules are different, the food is different, and they might have to share a room with someone that’s unfamiliar. This research opens our eyes to the trauma these children endure so that hopefully we can prevent future abuse in Foster
care. Whether children were maltreated or not and what kind of abuse the children went through were variables in this research. So yes, there was a theoretical framework. Children were randomly chosen from foster homes for the research. Information about the children’s behavior and state previous to being placed in foster care was taken from their records. As for a literature review, there is many outcomes that were layed out in tables.
Table 1 illustrates that children who were sexually abused or neglected were significantly less likely to be in kinship placements than physically abused or nonmaltreated children.( Benedict, Zuravin, Somerfield, & Brandt, 1996) There were tables giving us a variety of useful information. This study was very small and the number of participants could have been bigger to produce more accuracy. There are ethical considerations in the study. Is the people’s privacy protected? This study was done in the state of Maryland, will they be kept confidential? Are the researchers being objective? The researchers gathering information could be from the same area as they are taking data from and not want to believe people that come from there behave (or abuse) that way. Which leads to being honest. Is all of the information true and
accurate. Foster care is supposed to be the main form of assistance for children in the United states who cannot remain in their own homes due to abuse or neglect. Every time I read articles that have the words abuse, neglect, and foster parents together it makes me cringe. These foster families are supposed to be a safe haven for the children that are placed with them. Foster families are compensated in exchange for providing a safe environment, shelter, food, and whatever other needs the child may have. This article shows the correlation between the children, abuse, and the issues they have because of it while in foster care. In today’s world foster care has become a socialized, standardized, state funded, and governed institution. In each state the laws that govern and the benefits rendered are all different, but the overall purpose is the same. I hope one day there is a better system to ensure safety for all children and that foster homes are put through a more rigorous licensing program.

References

Benedict, M., Zuravin, S., Somerfield, M., & Brandt, D. (1996). The reported Health and Functioning of Children Maltreated while in Family foster Care. Child Abuse and Neglect, 20(7), 561-571.