Research on foster populations has identified a set of pre-adoption risk factors that impair aspects of children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional functioning, and can compromise adoptees’ adjustment to permanent homes (Houston & Kramer, 2008). Foster care children have disproportionately high experiences of toxic substances in-utero, limited prenatal care, prematurity, low birth weight, abuse, neglect, trauma, and sexual and physical abuse (Purvis, Cross, & Sunshine, 2007). Secondary risk factors relate to the age of adoption, ethnicity, male gender, and number of prior placements (Hussey et al., 2012). Most notable is the prevalence of mental illness among children exiting the foster system to permanent homes with rates currently estimated at 47 % (Hussey et al.,
Research on foster populations has identified a set of pre-adoption risk factors that impair aspects of children’s cognitive, physical, social, and emotional functioning, and can compromise adoptees’ adjustment to permanent homes (Houston & Kramer, 2008). Foster care children have disproportionately high experiences of toxic substances in-utero, limited prenatal care, prematurity, low birth weight, abuse, neglect, trauma, and sexual and physical abuse (Purvis, Cross, & Sunshine, 2007). Secondary risk factors relate to the age of adoption, ethnicity, male gender, and number of prior placements (Hussey et al., 2012). Most notable is the prevalence of mental illness among children exiting the foster system to permanent homes with rates currently estimated at 47 % (Hussey et al.,