Research Proposal

A. Overview In analyzing social problems in our society it is imperative we realize the importance of psychologically developing children in need. Foster and adopted children face many obstacles in their psychological growth, ability to forge emotional attachments, and sustainability of positive self-esteem. Because foster and adopted children endure a unique set of emotional issues, particularly during adolescence (a time period crucial in psychological development), it is instrumental that we understand how to deal with the psychological wounds that start opening up during adolescence. The added confusion of being adopted in one of the most crucial developmental stages for children and teens alike reflects a unique situation in which foster and adopted children struggle to confide confidence within themselves and curiosity emerges as they begin to question and contemplate their past heritage. By working to understand and address the unique set of issues that begin to rise in adolescent foster and adopted children we can begin to relieve these individuals of psychological and emotional debilitations that deprive them of psychological and emotional growth in a time when they are already actively working to define themselves. By doing so we can not only enforce positive parent-child attachment but can create opportunities for children in need to grow up and become psychologically, emotionally, and cognitively healthy adults. B. Background and Significance Of the countless relationships developed in a lifetime the relationship between parent and child is among one of the most pivotal. In reviewing correlations significant to adoptive and biological children’s attachment towards their parents we only have to evaluate countless literature-based journals to formulate one recurring theme: a child’s attachment towards their parents is concurrent not with whether or not the child is biologically related but dependent on a) how long the relationship has had to

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