What Affects Do Different Types of Family Care Have on Children’s Mentality and Development?

The review of literature
What affects do different types of family care have on children’s mentality and development?

Sophia Shen
Wednesday, May 29, 2013

Introduction Over the past few centuries, the types of families that children are raised in have made large changes. Traditionally, children are supposed to be brought up by two married couples, also known as nuclear family structure (Kelly, 2013). However, as time progresses, more types of family structures to raise a child in are introduced and accepted in our society – structures that are not necessarily beneficial to children. In this review of literature, three main types of families will be examined: single-parent/divorced families, foster care families, and adopted families, and thorough research will show the affects these different types of families have on children and their mentality. The paper will prove that these three types of untraditional family types can cause long-term damage to children negatively impact these children’s lives.

Parental separation, divorce, and single parent families:

In the past decades, divorce rate amongst Canadians have been on the rise. Currently, around one third of marriages in Canada end in divorce (Kelly, 2012). The husband and wife are not the only victims in the separation – the children of the family’s lives will be vastly shaken by their parent’s decisions. Parental divorce is an increasingly common experience in childhood, with nearly one in two divorces in Canada involving dependent children (Kerr & Michalski 2004). Researches have shown that children whose parents do not have a positive relationship may harbor anger and anguish, which may subsequently threaten their academic success and provide the impetus behind early family formation (Waldfogel, Craigie,& Brooks-Gunn, 2010). Younger children who have experienced through parental separation may have difficulties sleeping, temper tantrums, and separation anxiety, sadness, grief, intense anger, and develop irrational fears (Szilagyi, 2007). The children’s stress has often led to anxiety, depression, substance abuse, delinquent behavior and teen pregnancy by the girls (Shaffran, n.d.). Divorce has the ability to intensify the child 's dependence and to accelerate the adolescent 's independence; it often elicits a more regressive response in the child and a more aggressive response in the adolescent (Pickhardt, 2011). Adolescents may also resort to drug and alcohol use, sex, theft, and violence to help themselves escape their loneliness, sadness, insecurities, or even self-blame (Szilagyi, 2007) In addition, children from divorced families may also have a tendency toward lower rates of education, early marriage, living together before marriage, and a group of behaviours which can be described as: lower commitment to marriage, infidelity, problems with anger management, feelings of insecurity, neediness, demandingness, denial and blame, contempt, poor conflict resolution skills, higher levels of depression, and more problems with peers (Gauvreau, 2012).
Similar to divorced families, there has been an increase in the number of children born into single-parent families in the past couple of years. Single-parent families are classified as “fragile families” in which the mother is unmarried at the time the time of childbirth (Waldfogel, Craigie, Brooks-Gunn, 2010). In United States, “around 33% of children are born into fragile families while 10% are born into single teenage mothers, while just under 20% of children are born into single-parent families” (Szilagyi, 2007, Ambert, 2006). Fragile families show clear negative affects to both the parent and the child. Single mothers are at elevated risk for psychological distress and depression. Several studies have documented greater psychological distress among separated and divorced parents than among the married (Avison, 2002). Single parent households usually have the least resources, and they are expected to have the worse outcomes relative to children in married families, and this adds stress on the families and affects the child outcomes (Craigie, Brooks-Gunn, Waldfogel, 2009). As noted, single parents, on average, are in poorer mental health, and have more problematic relationships with their partners—any of which might in turn affect the quality of parenting that single mothers provide for their children (Waldfogel, Craigie, Brooks-Gunn, 2010). Single mothers often have to work overtime shifts to compensate for the low salaries and single income issues, thus taking time away from their children and other domestic chores (Drew, 2002). “This results in a child that is home alone, without adult supervision, or placed in a daycare service for up to 8-10 hours per day” (Drew, 2002). This negatively impacts a child’s mentality because the child is not receiving the attention normally required from parents. Compared with continuously married parents, single parents are less emotionally supportive of their children, have fewer rules, dispense harsher discipline, are more inconsistent in dispensing discipline, provide less supervision, and engage in more conflict with their children, which shaken the child’s mental stability (Amato, 2005). Evidently, when nonresident fathers pay child support, children preform better at school and exhibit fewer behavioral problems (Amato, 2005). Although this, “only approximately 33% of noncustodial fathers pay child support” (Craigie, Brooks-Gunn, Waldfogel, 2009). This shows that children living in divorced families or single-parent families face more psychological, emotional, and even physical health issues than those living in nuclear families.

Foster Care families: Although children living in a single parent families or divorced household may experience greater emotional, economic, and psychological problems than nuclear families, at least the children have a parent to depend on. A foster home is a household in which an orphaned, delinquent child, or child who can no longer live with biological parents is placed, usually by a social-service agency, along with numerous other children (Ministry of Children and Youth Services, 2011). The difference between foster care and adoption is that foster care is temporary – foster parents do not assume legal guardianship of the child and usually a child residing in a foster home will continue to have visits with members of the natural family (Home for Kids, n.d.). Foster care is intended to serve as a temporary haven for abused or neglected children who cannot safely remain with their families. However for some children, the journey through foster care is characterized by further trauma and abuse; and even in the best situations, foster care is inherently fraught with uncertainty, instability, and impermanence (Bass, Shields, & Behrman, 2004). “More than 100 000 children and youth in Canada are under the protection of child and family services” and these children have substantially higher rates of developmental delays and mental disorders, including attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder, conduct disorder, depression and substance abuse, compared to non-maltreated peers (Hébert, MacDonald, 2009, Schwartz, Waddell, Barican, Garland, Gray-Grant, Nightingale, 2012).
Although foster care is intended to ameliorate adverse caregiving conditions, the accumulation of experiences necessitating placement often render children even more vulnerable to emotional and behavioral difficulties. (Carlson, Egeland, 2006) “A study in Washington State found that 72% of foster children had emotional disturbances that were indistinguishable from those of children being cared for in the most intensive mental health program.” (Hébert, MacDonald, 2009) In addition, children in foster care have disproportionately high rates of physical, developmental, and mental health problems, and often have many unmet medical and mental health care needs due to economic issues. (American Academy Of Pediatrics, 2000) “It has been estimated that up to 60% of children in foster care experience some type of developmental delay, including language delays (57%), cognitive problems (33%), gross motor difficulties (31%), and growth problems (10%)” (Kools, Kennedy, 2003). “Moreover, some children in foster care have been moved from 3 to 7 times”, which placed upon profoundly negative impacts, and also set the stage for depression, behavioural and relationship difficulties and myriad other problems, including academic failure and adolescent pregnancy (Hébert, MacDonald, 2009). All the researches supports that foster care ultimately have negative affects on children and adolescents.

Adopted families
When a couple is unable to biologically conceive a child, they may resort to adoption. Although the couple is providing home to a child in need, further problems in the child’s life may develop from the couple’s actions. In United States, “approximately 120,000 children are adopted each year” (American academy of Children & Adolescent Psychiatry, 2011). A multitude of issues may arise when children become aware that they have been adopted. Children may feel grief over the loss of a relationship with their birthparents and the loss of the cultural and family connections that would have existed with those parents (Patricelli, 2007). Because many adopted children have experienced abuse, neglect, or abandonment before entering the adopted homes, they often have significant mental health needs – needs that may not diminish as they grow older (DePanfilis, 2006). Along with grief and guilt, the adopted person may react to the loss through the normal feelings of anger, numbness, depression, anxiety, or fear (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2004). Studies have found that adopted children are more likely to develop social, intellectual, or emotional problems. Exposure to substances in the womb including drugs and alcohol, subsequent abuse or neglect, lack of structure in the family environment, poor nutrition, and reduced stimulation, along with placement at a later age, can all place a child at risk for developing these problems (Humphreys, 2010).
Children who are adopted tend to utilize the services of mental health or special education providers more often than non-adopted children. “While adoptees represent approximately 2% of the total U.S. population, they make up, 5% of children receiving outpatient mental health services, 10 to 15% of children in residential treatment, and 6 to 9% of children who have learning disorders in the U.S” (Brodzinsky, 2008). One of the characteristics of adopted children with attachment issues is their ability to pass on their emotions to others around them and to create an environment in which they feel comfortable, even though it is very distressing for those closest to them (Hirst, 2009). Identity issues are of particular concern for teenagers who are aware that they are adopted and even more so, for those adopted in a closed or semi-open circumstance. Such children often wonder why they were given up for adoption (Patricelli, 2007). The adopted adolescent 's identity development includes questions about the biological family, why he or she was placed for adoption, what became of the birth parents, whether the adolescent resembles the birth parents in looks or in other characteristics, and where the adolescent "belongs" in terms of education, social class, culture, peer group, and others (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2004). Feelings of loss and rejection are often accompanied by a damaged sense of self-esteem. There is an understandable tendency to think that "something must be wrong with me for my birth parents to have give me away,” by the adopted child (Schwartz, 2009). Likewise to single-parent/divorced families, and foster care families, adopted families negatively impact a child’s life in comparison to nuclear families as shown from the research.

Conclusion In conclusion, the research above proved that single-parent/divorced families, foster care families, and adopted families all show negative effects on children’s mentality and development. Although nuclear family structures are most preferable for a child’s development, it is often very difficult to maintain due to numerous problems and flaws in the parents. The type of family a child grows up in is not in to their own control, but they are usually forced to face the consequences of their parent’s right or wrong decisions. Parents in untraditional families should pay extra attention to their children to ensure the healthiest and beneficial mentality and development.

Work Cited
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