Over the past two decades, the foster care system experienced an unprecedented rise in the number of children in out-of-home care, significant changes in the policy framework guiding foster care practice, and ongoing organizational impediments that complicate efforts to serve the children in foster care. This article discusses the current status of the foster care system and finds: Agencies oft...

This study examines how history of care, on one hand, and social support, the other predict satisfaction with life after leaving care by focusing a sample young adults raised in foster Norway. When aged between 19 29, youths answered questionnaires that mapped their past living conditions, relationships satisfaction. Results show 70 respondents had experienced relatively stable (mean number pla...

Studies of the transition to adulthood in child welfare focus almost exclusively on youth in foster care. Yet, research indicates that maltreated children who remain in the home may display similar risks as compared with their peers in formal foster care settings. Utilizing administrative data from child welfare, juvenile justice and adult corrections, the current study fills a gap in the liter...

OBJECTIVE Foster children often experience compromising situations such as neglect, physical abuse, or sexual abuse before out-of-home placement. This article aims to give a literature review related to the development and mental health of foster children with special consideration of trauma history. METHODS A computer-based literature search was conducted in the databases Medline, PsycINFO, ...

Children in foster care comprise a population of students at great risk for school failure. The child welfare agency, schools, and home must all work together to provide the services and supports required to achieve better results. The purpose of this study was to conduct focus groups with participants from each sector to discuss their views on the educational problems and needs of students in ...

Infants hospitalized for non-organic failure to thrive in the first six months of life are in a life-threatening situation and are already at risk for poor bonding with mother. In light of this, the meaning and use of foster care and how this separation affects the developing mother-child relationship are the issues addressed through examination of 16 cases in which 8 of the infants were placed...

BACKGROUND Among children placed out of home, behavioral and relationship functioning is often problematic. When placed in foster care, problems tend to persist or even worsen and increase the risk of placement breakdown. Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers is an intensive behavior-focused program for young foster children (3 to 7 years) aiming to provide children with a pos...

Every child and youth who enters the foster care system has a goal of finding a permanent home, also known as “permanency.” The child welfare professionals work to achieve this permanency goal by reunifying the child with their parents or finding another permanent connection, such as adoption or legal guardianship. While permanency is a goal for all children in foster care, recent statistics sh...