Introduction
The issue of foster care in the world has recently increased with the increase in the number of the neglected children in the communities. Some kids live with both parents, other with single parent while others are completely neglected with no parent to care for them. This has necessitated the need for foster families which lives with these neglected children. In the United States, for example, the government plays a big role in instituting and supporting the foster family programs. Foster parents are the people who take the responsibility as a parent to a neglected child. It has been alleged that there is lack of parenting to kids in foster families. This paper is an annotated bibliography on how foster kids are treated in foster families and the negligence of foster families and the bad services provided to the foster families. There are discussed in the sections below.
Annotated bibliography foster kids are treated in foster families and the negligence of foster families and the bad services provided to the foster families
Source 1. Handbook of parenting: theory and Research for Practice
According to Hoghughi & Long (17), parenting in foster families is more difficult than in intact families. Foster parents face great challenge while bringing up the kids. A significant factor contributing to this factor is the past history of the child. If the child is beyond the neonatal period, then the issue of attachment usually arises since attachments are typically formed with caregivers from about six months of age onwards.
Foster parents giving foster care to children who are beyond infancy usually forge relationships with the children who have gone through the loss of a parent whom they had primary relationship with. Research has revealed that infants placed in foster care between birth and 20 months of age form secure attachments with foster parents at the same rate as biological parent.
The other factor affecting parenting in foster families is the constellation of attitudes and expectations held by the parents themselves, including impermanence and the consequent possible lack of emotional investment. These factors pose a great challenge in the provision of parenting to those children. The lack of attachment of the foster parents and the kids denies the kids the experience of parental care. The past life of the kids is also difficult to cope with by the foster parents. Parenting the kids in foster families depends on the age of the children. For infants, it becomes easier to adapt to the new families and parents and the parents are able to provide the due care to the kids.
Source 2. Child Abuse Risk Factors: Contributing to Physical and Emotional Abuse and Neglect
Craft (6) explains that the children in foster families are exposed to risky situations rather than getting the parental care they need. He explains how the children are abused in the foster families. Parenting kids in foster families would entail providing care to those kids as legitimate kids of the foster parents. Most of the risk factors that these kids are exposed to are related to the community itself, parents and also the kids themselves. These factors deny the children the parental care that they need. The community related factors include the high rate of crime in the society that exposes these kids to dangerous lifestyles.
Children are abused or used in performing crimes like drug trafficking and other kinds of felonies. The society has also failed to provide adequate social services that are necessary for the kids. Biological Parents strive to ensure their kids get access to all the services they need. If the community does not provide the services needed by these kids, the foster parents may not be in a position to get them available to the children. The high rate of poverty in the economy also has great effect of the parenting of the kids in foster families. The foster parents do not get enough resources to provide for the kids. This makes the kids lack the due parental care from their foster mothers.
Besides the high rate poverty in the society, the society is also experiencing the high rate of unemployment. This poses a great challenge to the foster parents and they are unable to provide to the kids the parental care they deserve. The other factors that deny the children their parental care in foster families include lack of parenting skills by the foster parents. If the parents are not equipped with parenting skills, then there will be lack of parenting. Domestic violence is also a factor denying kids the parental care that that they expect from the foster families. When there is violence, kids are mostly the ones to suffer because they are helpless.
Source 3. “What Makes Good Foster Parent?” British Journal Of Social Work
Dando and Minity (384) investigate the traits, the history and the enthusiasm of foster mothers who become foster parents for a period of one year to one or more children. Their parenting skills are related to the knowledge obtained by the foster mothers in their childhood. The study reveals that enthusiastic parents may offer excellent parenting owing to the fact that they cannot have children of their own. The other reason that triggers enthusiasm is the desire to enable a child live happily because the foster mother has unpleasant memories of their childhood. The author also found out that good foster parents would also be selfless, humanistic and individuals who have a good will.
The investigation disclosed that although the foster parents may enjoy and find fulfillment in fostering children, they hardly find happiness of ever seeing them as their own and as an extension to their generation. Barren foster mothers obtain their accomplishment from caring for the children while the foster mothers with own children get fulfillment from giving the foster child a better life. This article identifies the enthusiasm needed to become a successful foster parent, but it does not give the reason that makes this enthusiasm fade away after sometime.
This journal article gives attention to the origin of motivation of the foster parent. This is because the background of the foster parent may have a direct impact on their ability to become successful foster parents. The most appealing aspect of this source is that the investigation emphasizes on the motivation of the foster mother who in most cases give care to the child. By understanding the background motivation of the foster parent, it is possible to identify a befitting foster family that will enable a child grow up with discipline, family support and enjoys their childhood. The likelihood of the barren foster mother treating the child as their own may be higher that the foster parent with own children and is only helping to give much needed care to a child.
Source 4. Hearn, Jody “Family preservation in families’ ecological systems: Factors that predict out-of-home placement and maltreatment for service recipients in Richmond City”
The authors pay attention to the process involved in fostering children Virginia. The objective of the process is to protect the growing children from dangers that include poverty background of the foster parent and the background of the foster child. Depending on the behavior of the foster parent or the foster child changes that lead to separation could occur for the benefit of either of them (Hearn 4). One of the reasons that are cited is the abuse of the child.
Even parents living with own children risk losing the child to a foster home if they abuse the child or neglect them. The overall objective of the study that was conducted in Virginia was to obtain information on the best ways that can be adopted to enhance child care within the family. More so to emphasize on the environmental factors that are essential for the support of the child. Hearn point out that the major needs of a foster home is to protect the child from poverty and to enable the child obtain the basic needs. They note that the child’s requirements can be taken care by services of the foster home.
Hearn emphasizes the importance of providing services that protect children from poverty and neglect of their needs. The family being the most important social structure for a growing child can be strengthened to enable children grows up with discipline and without deviant behaviors. A growing child needs to grow up in an environment that promote good character and prevent suffering that emanate from neglect of childcare.
Services offered by institutions could be enhanced to meet the individual needs of a child to have a healthy life. Children could find refuge in a foster care institution. These institutions are designed to meet the most important needs of the child that are mainly geared towards helping the child have a healthy childhood experience. Children are protected from suffering and given parenting in the institutions that offer child care.
Parenting can be achieved as the child will not be moved from one foster home to another and fail to get parental care. If the child is to be taken to a foster home the procedure must be followed strictly so that the child benefits from the arrangement rather than suffer. More so the child can benefit from staying in a foster home if the foster parents have parenting skills and ability. The family is the most important institution where a child can be parented. This article reveals the importance of social institutions that provide care for the children who need parenting. The services offered enable the child to belong and to have foster parents.
Source 5. Foster parenting by Berric, Duerr. “When Children Cannot Remain Home: Foster Family Care and Kinship Care” The future children. 8. 1 (1998): 72- 87.
Berric (72), a professor and social service researcher conducts a study in California on foster parenting. He investigates why there has been a shift in the social services centers where the kin is preferred to be the foster parent of a child. He notes the increasing need for foster families to give children adequate care. Despite the efforts of the social services offering assistance to needy children, the children can hardly remain in their foster home, a genuine concern that lead the professor to conduct the research. The research out comes suggest that children who join foster families with kinship ties have a likelihood of staying and getting parental care.
In his article, the researcher indicates the accessibility of foster families and goes further to reveal perceptions that have hindered the smooth functioning of foster homes with foster children. In his study, the issue of compensating for the up keep of the child is raised as the kin that adopts the child has to bear the responsibility of giving sufficient childcare. The individual traits of the foster parent are investigated to distinguish foster parents who are kin from other foster parents. His findings make known that foster parents who are related to the children can be successful in meeting the needs of the child although they fail to follow the legal requirements of the state. The relatives of a child are seen as an alternative to foster families that have no blood relationship with the child.
The article reveals the dynamics involved in giving a child to a foster home where the foster parents have kinship ties with the child. This form of kinship is seen as a better option as the relatives are likely to provide care to the child and provide parenting to the child. The foster child is likely to remain with the kin for a longer period and avoid moving from one foster home to another. The kin have a perception about the parents and this may affect their motivation either positively or negatively. The main challenge with this form of support for the child is that the kin hesitate from obtaining legal ground for becoming foster parents on permanent basis.
Protecting the child is the goal of giving the child a foster home and obtaining services from the kin may be a good option. What is interesting in this article is that the kin can provide adequate care as if the child was their own due to the blood relationship. However, the benefits of choosing the kin over another foster parent who is not related to the child should be considered before the social service agency gives the child a foster family. Moreover, the kin is sometimes preferred because the child may have established a relationship with the kin earlier. The relative who takes the role of the parent may be effective as they may not find them as strangers. Furthermore the foster parents may treat the child as their own since they have a blood relationship.
Conclusion
Child care is an essential part of a child’s growth. This care can be obtained from their original homes and in foster homes. The social services can be availed by social institutions that ensure that the children get foster families that will provide necessary parenting. Children can be adopted by foster families who do not have children and those with children and provide care. When the foster children do not have a home they remain in the social service center where they are taken care of.
The kin can also remain with children and provide good care. The intention of learning the diverse foster options is to avoid a situation where a child suffers from poverty and has no parenting. The hardships in the environment may lead to situations where the parents do not provide parenting and the child may end up with deviant behavior or be exposed to danger. The process of adjusting in a foster may take time and without understanding a child may move from one home to another. A stable family would be the most effective social environment to provide parenting.
Works Cited
Berric, Duerr. “When Children Cannot Remain Home: Foster Family Care and Kinship Care.” The future children. 8. 1 (1998): 72- 87.
Craft, Carrie. Child Abuse Risk Factors: Contributing to Physical and Emotional Abuse and Neglect. New York: New York Times, 2011.
Dando, Isabel & Minity, Brian. “What Makes Good Foster Parent?” British Journal of Social Work 17. 4 (1987): 383-399.
Hearn, Jody. “Family preservation in families’ ecological systems: Factors that predict out-of-home placement and maltreatment for service recipients in Richmond City” 2010.
Hoghughi, Masud and Long, Nicholas. Handbook of parenting: theory and Research for Practice. US: SAGE, 2004.