Are children in foster care in better psychological health than children in institutions? What factors influence the outcome?

Abstract

The aim of this study was to compare the psychological health of children in foster care with that of children in institutional care. Social workers were asked to assess the psychological health of the children as well as several other criteria on the basis of an analysis grid. Our sample consisted of 568 children placed in foster care and 661 children placed in institutions. Our results show that children in care who lived longer with their birth parents have a lower psychological health. Furthermore, the psychological health of children in residential care is lower than children placed in foster families. As children in institution are placed later than children in foster families, this may partially explain the lower psychological health of children in residential care. As a result, children in residential care have experienced more abuse and neglect and witnessed more domestic violence than children in foster care. In addition, children in residential care have more poor-quality contacts with their birth parents than children in foster family. These contacts negatively influence their psychological health. Finally, the factor that most influences the psychological health of children in care is the quality of the relationship with the people who care for them on a daily basis. Again, children placed in foster families have better-quality relationships with their foster families than children placed in institutions.

The Placement of Children in Need of Out-of-Home Care: Forms of Care and Differences in Attachment Security and Behavioral Problems in the Italian Context

“…However, apart from these characteristic legal and procedural aspects, it must be emphasized, as mentioned above, that the literature primarily shows a significant difference between the mental health of children in institutional care compared to other forms of out-of-home care. This is likely due to the fact that children in institutional care are placed later, have suffered more abuse and neglect and have experienced more domestic violence [11]. All these features, together with all the others described above for the different forms of out-of-home care, suggest that each of them may have different effects on children's attachment and behavioral problems.…”

“…As mentioned above, there are various out-of-home care services around the world. In Italy, four different forms principally occur: closed adoption, open adoption, foster care and institutional care [10][11][12][13][14][15]. Closed (or confidential) adoption involves no contact or interaction of any kind between child and birth parents after the adoption takes place.…”

“…Additionally, in his review, Tarren-Sweeney [5] reported that institutionalized children have less mental health problems than those in foster care and, among these, those in kinship care (e.g., vs. family-type foster care) have fewer problems. Additionally, Chartier and Blavier [11] reported that the sociopsychological health of Belgian institutionalized children was lower than that of those in foster families. The authors also underlined how out-of-home care children who stayed longer with their birth parents had, in general, lower psychological health.…”

Foster care experiences during childhood and health during older age: Evidence from China.

“…However, Brännström et al (2020) suggest that adults who have experienced childhood foster care do not show poorer mental health than those who grew up in their own homes. It has also been argued that mental health problems associated with childhood foster care are significantly lower than those correlated with residential childhood experiences (Chartier & Blavier, 2023). On this basis, the following research hypothesis was proposed.…”

Experiences of counselors participating in an innovative project to develop a training program for specialized foster parents of youth (13–18 years)

“…Residential institutions employ experienced professionals to provide a safe environment. Specialized foster care (SFC), which provides care in the context of a family, especially older children and adolescents, has proven to be a viable alternative to institutional care (Webb, 2010;Åkerman et al, 2023;Chartier and Blavier, 2023).…”