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Erica Cooper
ENG 2100
29 Apr 2015

The Treatment of Children in Foster Care:

Figure 1

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Children in the Child Welfare System are taught how to survive, not thrive. The way
children are treated in foster care could be argued for the development of certain disorders.
According to one foster child in the system: "[t]hey said foster care was safe, they didn't tell us
we'd have to learn to just survive in there" commented a child currently living in foster care.
This quote brings to light just how harsh life can be for children living in the
Child Welfare System (CWS). While this quote makes foster care seem
hopeless, there are still those individuals and families who take children in and foster
them, giving them hope. Some foster parents who foster, or even adopt, foster children
Figure 2

in the foster care system for various reasons. These reasons can
include, but are not limited to: are unable to have children, do not have

children for some unknown circumstance, to fill up an empty nest, to give back, but the biggest
reason is to make a difference in a childs life (4 Reasons to Consider Foster Parenting, How And
Why People Decide To Foster). Karl Brown, a foster father in Turpin, Okla., says the best part of
foster parenting is seeing his children happy and secure for the first time (Kendall). According
to Foster Care Statistics; there are more than 463,000 children that live in foster care
nationwide (Foster Care Statistics).
Foster care systems have been around, in some respect, since the founding of Jamestown
Colony. It was English Poor Law, however, that lead to development and eventual regulation of
family foster care in the United States (History of Foster Care in the United States). English
Law dictated that if children were poor than they could be placed into servitude until they came
of age. Documentation shows children being cared for all the way back in Old Testament times
(History of Foster Care in the United States). In the year 1636, Benjamin Eaton became the first
ever documented foster child at the age of seven. In 1853, Charles Loring Brace officially

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began the foster home movement (NFPA). Brace was concerned with the amount of immigrant
children sleeping on New Yorks streets. Ever since then thousands of children are put into foster
care every year.
Children can be put into government foster care systems at any age, any time, depending
on if their current circumstance warrants that they be removed from their environment. The
purpose of foster care is to find a solution to a bad situation that a child has been put in; either by
their parent, guardian, or other caretaker. If the parents of a child are divorced, the child may be
removed from the corrupt situation and put in the custody of the other parent. The child may also
be placed with a relative until the primary guardian is improved (Foster Care Statistics). If there
are no other relatives to care for the child, Child Welfare System, or CWS as they are more
commonly called, will come in, retrieve the child, and then put them into a foster care to either
be fostered or later adopted. The child is often returned to the care of their biological or legal
parents as soon as possible (Coleman) or they are adopted by their foster parents. Usually when
a child enters the system they meet one of the following criteria: physical or sexual abuse (25%),
some form of neglect (3.2%), guardian incarceration, truancy, runaways, and the two rarest of all,
death and voluntary placement (Craft, Foster Care Statistics).
Having a category just for children who have endured multiple traumas would make their
treatments, and possibly lives, much easier because their treatment plans, symptoms, and
solutions would already be pre-determined. Children who are raised in the foster care system are
often diagnosed with disorders and have several examples of trauma. Reported trauma can either
be sexual, emotional, or physical, or psychological. According to Type of maltreatment as a
predictor of mental health service use for children in foster care, 56% of the children they
surveyed had received mental services. Children removed from their homes due to sexual

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and/or physical abuse were more likely to receive services than were those who were removed
due to neglect and caretaker absence (Garland). The most popular diagnosed disorders in foster
care children are Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and abuse-related trauma, disruptive
behavior disorders (including conduct disorder, oppositional defiant disorder and ADHD),
depression and substance abuse (National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI). In 2010, there
were 408,425 youths that were in the foster care system in the United States alone at that time
(Helping Hand Home for Children Development Department, 2012). According to the authors of
the article, Complex Trauma and Mental Health in Children and Adolescents Placed in Foster
Care: Findings from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network: [t]hose who enter foster
care have usually experienced multiple traumatic events perpetrated by a caregiver, which
typically serve as the precipitant or removal from their homes (Oswald, Fegert, & Goldbeck,
2010). Tori DeAngelis, a writer published in the Journal of Family Psychology, believes that
there should be a push for the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) to
include a category for children who undergo multiple traumas (DeAngelis).
So what exactly causes children in foster care to become defiant or rebellious? Experts on
the nurture side believe that a childs defiance and sometimes even trauma could be caused by
the childs environment. Shalhevet Attar-Schwartz, who works at the School of Social Work and
Social Welfare, states that 44.2% of foster children attempt to run away from their current
setting. In his paper, Attar-Schwartz articulates that runaway behavior was more likely for youth
who had been in the foster care system for longer or who had been abused by their peers (AttarSchwartz, School of Social Work and Social Welfare). In the case of adolescents who are
runaways because of their circumstances, defiance would be attributed to nurture. The nurture

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side of the debate states that something is done purely because of our environment, or rather
what is around us has the possibility to shape and mold our personality and attitudes.

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The way children are raised truly determines how they function in society. Another
argument for the nurture side of the debate is the number of children who age out of foster care
every year. Aging out of foster care is the point in a childs life when they are no longer able to
be reunited with their family and have reached a certain age where they are now too old to
remain in the system. At age eighteen, children are officially considered aged out of the foster
system without achieving permanent family connections
or those critical building blocks of support (Stangler).
Each year 23,000 adolescents age out of foster care. The
percentage of aging out youth has also increased from 8%
in 2003 to 10% in 2013 (Childrens Rights). Aging out

Figure 3

would strongly be considered nurture because there is not nothing the youth can do to remedy the
situation, except end up on their own. 50% of girls who age out of foster care are pregnant by the
time they are nineteen. There is also 74% of former foster children in prison and 80% are on
death row. These children follow what they know. Some children who are in foster care come
from homes with incarcerated parents. Overall, 75% of children with an incarcerated mother
have a father who also has had criminal involvement, even children who are not in foster care
(Sanders, Dunifon). Almost every child who enters the foster care system has endured multiple
traumas. By the time the youth ages out, they know nothing but trauma or what they have
experienced as they grew. There was also only 54% of former foster children who obtained only
a high school diploma or GED and 30% that were receiving public assistance (Foster Care
Alumni of America).
Nature, however, contrasts with its counterpart. In the nature side of the nature v. nurture
debate, everything we do is based on our genetics. So for example, if one or both parents had

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blue eyes, a baby will most likely have blue eyes; or if a family member has a certain disorder
that is genetically inheritable, a child has the chance of inheriting that disorder. Such examples
are schizophrenia, depression, bipolar disorder, autism spectrum disorder, etc. If a child has a
disorder, such as bipolar disorder, the child or adolescent can often be hard to handle. Because
adolescents are shifted around in the system and sometimes not given the care and attention they
need health problems and disorders, like the ones listed above, can be missed. Bipolar disorder is
treated with medication and if not caught early enough, the child can bounce from foster home to
home without being on any medication and then becomes a problem.
As well as their physical needs, foster childrens psychological needs to be taken care of
as well. The number of children being abused in foster care systems today is staggering. As of
2012, there were 297,971 alleged victims but only 17,000 removed from their homes. Children in
the 17,000+ cases that were actually removed from their homes suffered significant damage,
physically, emotionally, and even sometimes psychologically (Congressional Coalition on
Adoption Institution, Facts about Child Abuse and Foster Care). The children removed from
these abusive and neglectful homes know nothing but the type of environment they were raised
in. These removed children then go on to become oppositional and sometimes abusive
themselves.
The age of children in foster care is startling. The average age of children in foster care
programs is about 10 years of age. As of 2012, 32% of children were under the age of 5, making
them still at a vulnerable age (Facts about Child Abuse and Foster Care). Children removed
before age five, are usually raised in system so learn no other way of life. They exhibit the
nurture side of the debate because they base their behavior on their environment and from what
they learn from others (Facts about Child Abuse and Foster Care). As a child grows in the

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system, they learn more and more from the families that foster them. Adolescents aged 6-15 still
remaining in the system is at 48%. At a crucial age when they should be going through schooling
and having stability in their lives, the 48% of 6-15 year olds are sprung from family to family.

Types of child abuse

Neglect
Physical
Abuse
Sexual Abuse

2% 8%
7%
7%
9%

Psychological
Maltreatment
67%

Medical
Neglect
Other

Entering the system about 85% of foster

kids have been sexually abused which makes it hard to care for them. According to Lana
Freeman, president of the state's Foster Care and Adoption Association: "You're getting children
that have a lot of trauma" (Kendall). When children are sexually abused before entering the Child
Welfare System, they can become distrustful and sometimes even hard to handle. While most
disorders are caused in the care of CWS, some children are actually born with their disorders.
Disorders, such as autism spectrum disorder and schizophrenia, are most present at birth; they
will develop while in foster care. Other disorders, such as oppositional defiance disorder and
possibly even bipolar disorder could develop as the child develops in foster care. As the saying
goes, monkey see, monkey do and in foster care, that expression holds true. All a child knows
is what they see or hear around them.

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Child clinical psychologist, Oliver James states that: It [personality] is almost

definitively proven by the Human Genome Project that personality is not caused by genes. Its
one of the best-kept scientific secrets at the moment (Stallman). Other experts believe that
genes are necessary for development but not for personality development. According to Oxford
University neuroscientist Baroness Susan Greenfield, The popular thinking nowadays is that the
two are inextricably linked. She believes you cant talk about behavior without relating the
genes (Stallman). Genetics give us our physical attributes but not our non-physical ones, such as
personality. Foster care children do not choose to be in foster care, they end up there. Also the
disorders that develop while in foster care are not the fault of the children; they are the fault of
CWS. People determine who they want to become based on their environment and what they
learn from others. That means nurture determines if foster children develop certain disorders or
how they behave involving certain circumstances. Nature would help determine the youths
reaction to a circumstance while nurture determines how they interact with events in their
environments.

Works Cited
"4 Reasons to Consider Foster Parenting." 4 Reasons to Foster Parent. N.p., n.d.
Web. 29 Apr. 2015.
"Aging Out - Children's Rights." Children's Rights. Children's Rights, 2014. Web. 24
Feb. 2015.
"Facts about Child Abuse and Foster Care." Facts about Child Abuse and Foster Care
(2012): n. page. Helping Hand Home for Children Development Department. Web.
"Facts and Statistics." Facts and Statistics. Behavior Problems and Mental Health
Contacts in Adopted, Foster and Non adopted Children, n.d. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
"Foster Care Facts and Statistics." Foster Care Facts and Statistics. Foster Care
Alumni of America, n.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2015.

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"How And Why People Decide To Foster | Reasons for Fostering." How And Why
People Decide To Foster | Reasons for Fostering. Community Foster Care, n.d. Web.
29 Apr. 2015.
Cederna-Meko, Crystal1, Steven2 Koch, and Jacqueline3 Wall. "Youth With
Oppositional Defiant Disorder At Entry Into Home-Based Treatment, Foster Care, And
Residential Treatment." Journal Of Child & Family Studies 23.5 (2014): 895-906.
Education Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 3 Feb. 2015
Coleman, Candice. "Why Do Kids Get Put Into Foster Care?" Everyday Life. Global
Post, n.d. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
DeAngelis, Tori. "A New Diagnosis for Childhood Trauma?" Http://www.apa.org.
American Psychological Association, Mar. 2007. Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
Garland, Ann F. "Download PDFs." Type of Maltreatment as a Predictor of Mental
Health Service Use for Children in Foster Care. Science Direct, n.d. Web. 16 Mar.
2015.
Greeson, Johanna K. P., et al. "Complex Trauma And Mental Health In Children And
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Stress Network." Child Welfare 90.6 (2011): 91-108. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
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Shortage of Foster Parents Seen as U.S. Trend - USATODAY.com. USA Today, n.d.
Web. 25 Feb. 2015.
McLeod, Saul. "Nature Nurture in Psychology | Simply Psychology." Nature Nurture in
Psychology | Simply Psychology. Simply Psychology, 2007. Web. 11 Feb. 2015.
Stallman, Etan. "What Gives Us Our Personality? Nature Takes on Nurture." Metro
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2014. Web. 16 Mar. 2015.
Stangler, Gary. "Aging Out of Foster Care: The Costs of Doing Nothing Affect Us All."
The Huffington Post. TheHuffingtonPost.com, n.d. Web. 14 Mar. 2015.