Attachment Issues In Foster Care

Can one truly comprehend the lasting effects on foster care without experiencing the loss of their parents and being placed with complete strangers? Foster care has been a part of society for centuries and can even be traced back to the Old Testament. This alternative living situation came about in the United States around 1853. It was a safe haven for children who were abused, neglected, orphaned, or even homeless immigrants. This optimal living was a new and improved version of public housing for the poor. With foster care children could be placed with real families that would care for them and in these homes they would have the opportunity to learn life skills and lessons that would help better themselves so one day they have the chance

New parents are hard to accept, especially when the child has been passed home to home. These attachment issues may restrict the child from moving forward in their lives and excelling in the new environment provided (Robin). The lack of stability in the system is only setting up the children up for failure, according to Stone, “we treated foster children as if they were our own, yet many of them never felt as if they were.” It is difficult for young children and adolescents to comprehend the separation of their parents let alone the process of moving to multiple foster homes while under the guardianship of the state. Other children mask their hesitation at being attached to a family by letting others see only what they want to see. The children are attached, but only on a “superficial level” (Robin). Furthermore, studies have shown that foster children have a higher chance of severe insecurities and attachment disorder (Harden). These disorders cause complications in future relationships. The long-term negative effects of this is the foster children maintain their suspicious and untrustful manners which makes it difficult for new bonds in relationships to form (Robin). As a result of attachment issues foster children tend to feel uneasy in the home they are placed in. According to Dashaun Jackson who was raised in a foster home, “I found that foster care did not build families. It didn’t give me the opportunity to be a child. It forced me to mature a lot faster than my peers. It made me live life thinking that “today is the day that I’ll be leaving,” so don’t get comfortable and definitely don’t get attached to anyone.” The results of being in a foster home has made many other foster children experience similar feelings to being in a foster home. Researchers believe that securing the relationships between biological parents and family to the child living in a long term foster placement