Child Abuse In Foster Care

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Pages: 7

“50 to 75 percent of adolescents with anxiety, impulse control, and hyperactivity disorders develop them during teenage years”(Iliades). This widespread dilemma of mental illness has affected over 43 million Americans throughout the past few years, and will continue to plague our nation until we seek a solution to this problem (Insel). Many people believe that mental disorders and behavioral problems develop because of the nature of one’s genetics, and that the problem cannot be prevented. This preconception is false because mental disorders and behavioral issues are developed over time and are determined by the conditions under which you were raised and how you were nurtured as a child.

With the exponential rise in mental
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It is vital for our children to experience love and care as a child because “one in every two children in foster care had had chronic mental problems unrelated to behavioral concerns” (Pecora). This alarming number of mental illnesses can be prevented, these children abandoned, and thrown into the foster care system were not predestined to have mental disorders, their experiences have caused them to have these traumatic effects. Even though, the foster care system in America has helped many children there are still many flaws such as abuse in these homes. As these children are abandoned by their birth parents and exposed to sexual, verbal, psychological and physical abuse they are put at an extremely high risk of mental disorders like depression, post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and anxiety. This concern is not limited to the foster care system because, studies have shown that parents with $150,000 income has proven to have high levels of maladjusted teens which increasingly get worse as they go to college (Luthar). This statement can be viewed in many ways, some may assume that since these children were raised in the upper class, they were always given what they wanted and never got into trouble therefore they are more likely to act erratically and develop behavioral problems as they grow up. Another way to interpret this is to assume that these children might not have had parents who were around because they were constantly at work and are never able to care for and nurture their children which can cause mental disorders such as depression. Lastly, poverty at or before the age of five has been associated with negative outcomes (Owens). This negative outcome is most likely associated with a lack of parental guidence as an adolescent. Also pressure is most likely being applied to the child to.get a job and help the family survive which can cause anxiety in