Foster Care, Relationships in

In 2005, Child Protective Services (CPS) found that almost 1 million children in the United States were substantiated victims of child abuse and neglect. Importantly, more than one third of these children were placed in foster care because they were at “imminent risk” for danger. Based on federal statistics, children enter foster care for several reasons: neglect (64.4 percent), physical abuse (9.1 percent), sexual abuse (3.3 percent), or multiple abuses (16.0 percent). Family-based foster care is the most common placement for children removed from their biological families, with 70 percent of [Page 700]youth being placed in a nonrelative (46 percent) or kinship (24 percent) foster home. The average age of children entering care in the United States is 8.2 years old, and their mean length of stay is 28.6 months, although the range can vary from days to years. Half of those children entering foster care are expected to return to their biological parents. Although practices vary, there is usually little preparation for children entering foster care. Children often move straight from their biological family into a foster home. The child and birth parent are given little or no information about the family with whom the child will live. The same is true for foster parents. They receive a call from a social services agency with vague details about a child needing placement. Further, foster families have a range of parenting experiences and may never have had a child in their home before. Most states have training for foster parents that addresses common issues, but little is known about the effectiveness of these programs for increasing knowledge of children's needs and development. Relationships, although theoretically central to foster care, often take a back seat to the pressing demands of the system. This entry explores the historical factors that affect the relational quality of children in foster care, as well as those they develop with their foster-care givers.