For adolescents in foster care progress towards achieving the developmental tasks of adolescence may be more challenging because of the additional stress of being separated from their birth families. Examined in this study is the influence of identification with birth family on the ability of 116 youth in foster care, in a midwestern state, to develop a self-identity and positive self-esteem.Although children in foster care face the same developmental challenges as other children, their struggles for mastery take place within the context of an overwhelming emotional stress--separation from parents (Geiser, 1973). To facilitate a youth's ability to live successfully upon leaving the foster care system, adequate achievement towards accomplishing the developmental tasks of adolescence is necessary. It is adolescence, then, that provides a transitional period to adulthood (Timberlake & Verdieck, 1987) and a time of preparation for life which if not successfully completed could mean failure in one's adult life and successful completion could mean happiness as an adult