Group homes fall into the broad category of residential care, a category that also includes half-way homes, campus based homes, emergency shelters, self-contained settings, and staff secured setting (Curtis, Alexander, & Lunghofer, 2001; Child Welfare League of America, 2005). In general, residential care services represent an option of last resort. Child welfare systems attempt to work with children and families in the least restrictive environment. How we can improve juvenile delinquency and lower crime rates with foster youth?
Such practices reflect in 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96272) which established the foundation for a duration of care (Stuck, Small, & Ainsworth, 2000). When less restrictive environments became …show more content…
In part, such instability can be explained with how group home placements will be utilized. Children and adolescents rarely remove from the biological family home and place directly into a congregate care setting. In general, out of home placements commence in kin or non-kin foster family homes, and when such arrangements no longer work, individual youth are moved up the chain into more secure settings. There’s a variety of reasons placements “don't work” but foster parent unwillingness is the most pervasive. In a recent and comprehensive study of placement instability, Zinn et al. (2006) reports showed that 76% of placement disruptions were due, at least in part, to foster parents' inability or unwillingness to continue fostering. Among those moves attributed to foster parents, the reason most commonly cited (28%) was foster parents' inability to tolerate children's behavioral or emotional problems. Placement instability became problematic because of association with a range of negative outcomes including child behavior problems, feelings of insecurity, and overall dissatisfaction with the foster care experience (Festinger, 1983; Kurtz, Gaudin, Wodarski, & Howing, 1993; Redding, Fried & Britner, 2000). Evidence indicated that frequent placement changes within the child welfare system …show more content…
Specifically, a child who is moderately deviant is most susceptible to become more entrenched in delinquent friendships (Dodge & Sherrill, 2006). With regard to specific outcomes in the child welfare system, group care has achieved little success. In fact, a recent review entitled Institutions vs. Foster Homes: the Empirical Base for a Century of Action indicates that there virtually can not be any evidence to support the use of group care in child welfare (Barth, 2002). Group homes were evaluated as unsafe, unable to support healthy development, unstable, and costly. However, children in group care settings report seeing family members less often as compared with children in kinship care, and less likely to experience reunification with biological caregivers; this especially true for children aged 6–12 (Barth, 2002; Wulczyn, Hislop, & George,
Such practices reflect in 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act (P.L. 96272) which established the foundation for a duration of care (Stuck, Small, & Ainsworth, 2000). When less restrictive environments became …show more content…
In part, such instability can be explained with how group home placements will be utilized. Children and adolescents rarely remove from the biological family home and place directly into a congregate care setting. In general, out of home placements commence in kin or non-kin foster family homes, and when such arrangements no longer work, individual youth are moved up the chain into more secure settings. There’s a variety of reasons placements “don't work” but foster parent unwillingness is the most pervasive. In a recent and comprehensive study of placement instability, Zinn et al. (2006) reports showed that 76% of placement disruptions were due, at least in part, to foster parents' inability or unwillingness to continue fostering. Among those moves attributed to foster parents, the reason most commonly cited (28%) was foster parents' inability to tolerate children's behavioral or emotional problems. Placement instability became problematic because of association with a range of negative outcomes including child behavior problems, feelings of insecurity, and overall dissatisfaction with the foster care experience (Festinger, 1983; Kurtz, Gaudin, Wodarski, & Howing, 1993; Redding, Fried & Britner, 2000). Evidence indicated that frequent placement changes within the child welfare system …show more content…
Specifically, a child who is moderately deviant is most susceptible to become more entrenched in delinquent friendships (Dodge & Sherrill, 2006). With regard to specific outcomes in the child welfare system, group care has achieved little success. In fact, a recent review entitled Institutions vs. Foster Homes: the Empirical Base for a Century of Action indicates that there virtually can not be any evidence to support the use of group care in child welfare (Barth, 2002). Group homes were evaluated as unsafe, unable to support healthy development, unstable, and costly. However, children in group care settings report seeing family members less often as compared with children in kinship care, and less likely to experience reunification with biological caregivers; this especially true for children aged 6–12 (Barth, 2002; Wulczyn, Hislop, & George,