Raised in Institutional Care: Challenges to Normal Development - Essay Sample

Introduction

Children raised under institutional care face problems while growing up. The system that cares for them may be inefficient in establishing a norm that is coherent to the society's expectations due to unavoidable circumstances. Difficulties like shortage of enough staff to take care of the social needs of the child are problematic to their personality nurturing. They are at risk of having abnormal behavior as opposed to a child raised by their biological parents. For instance, such children have limited interaction exposure interfering with their socialization capabilities, and some end up being hostile to new people. The foster parents may have to attend to many indiscipline cases at school and sometimes expulsion of the child affecting their livelihood. The adopting parents may suffer embarrassment when visitors are in the house due to the wayward behavior of the child. Therefore, some adopted children's antisocial behavior makes them unfit to be with other members of society, putting their guardians into physical, emotional, and mental stress. The study focus on traumatic challenges in adopting families' faces in raising children from care institutions.

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Psychology researchers have developed theories and studies that evaluate the background of adopted children since they were born. They experiment with the lifestyle the institutions expose to the individual need children and how it impacts their lives. The scholars utilize the result from the data collected in the studies to suggest possible concepts for implementation by those affected by parentage stress in foster families.

Theoretical Framework

A psychologist is responsible for finding solutions to social problems. Adoption considered an alternative method of having a family in the whole world. Foster parents find it challenging to reveal the truth to the child. Facts like the actual parent revelation may nurture a violent attitude of the child to their new family with the information that they do not share identical genes. According to Kirk's theory on social problems associated with adoption, "foster parents sufferer mental disorder with the fact that they are pretending to play the role that is not theirs. They are faced with challenges of providing factual information to the child with the fear of rejection." Despite the challenge, Kirk's model suggests a solution parents can implement. For instance, the family should embrace their situation to refute the differences they have. Most foster parents fear the idea that they are not genetically related to their children (Adoption.com, 2014). Every person, when introduced to a new environment, they interact with foreign culture and identity with entirely different beliefs and practices of doing things. An acclimatization strategy will entail sensitizing the adopted child to their new society concerning their original behavior.

Human being's development composes physical, emotional, and mental adjustment. A child develops with a definite sense of self-identity to their social wellbeing. Their growth environment influences their behavior as an individual and others through interaction. Erikson's psychosocial theory emphasizes the utilization of developmental changes a human being undergoes to form a working relationship with them. He indicates that the stages of life are the points a person negotiates for their biological and cultural identity. The concept is vital to solve the relational challenges foster parents face with their children. For instance, the case of Janna and Alex can utilize the psychosocial idea to solve the problems Alex causes in school and at home. The data about his Romanian culture can use his personal social needs he requires to help him adjust to the new environment. Alex is at his early childhood, and Erikson's theory indicates that at this stage, he is negotiating to find purpose in every activity he engages in with the family.

The psychologist can help the child establish determination in engaging with activities they interact with at school, home, or any other social situation relevant to their age. For instance, if they love drawing, the school can group them with children with similar interests establish an interaction in the process. The foster parent should act to care for their developmental needs. Once a child develops recognizing the importance of the new family, they will change their attitude towards the people close to them, and the change may be permanent.

Foster family provides a child with new practices at home and at school. The child, therefore, deprived the primary relationship formed at the early stages of development. Vygotsky's sociocultural theory states that human beings learn through their interactions with others in society. The previous home of foster children had already provided them with the learning environment from which they acquired the behaviors. Vygotsky's concept that "human beings are limited within their zone of proximal development" insinuate that foster parents can develop desired characters in their children.

Related Research

Institutions like orphanages provide a home for abandoned children either by circumstances or neglect by parents. The study by Mainemer et al. (1998) evaluates the psychological stress individuals undergo from adopting children from care-providing organizations. The research focuses on developmental effects on the early childhood of children from Romanian Orphanage, which reflected on their attitude towards their foster families. The purpose of the study was to determine parenting challenges families that adopt children that are institutionalized for a period not less than eight months. The researchers focused on behavioral problems such as attachment against family factors such as wealth, family size, and wealth possession. The study had a control population of non-adopted children and adopted ones comparing the variation in parenting.

Methodology

The participants of the study consisted of families that adopted children from Romanian Orphanage. The children should have spent at least eight months in the institution. A total of 41 participants provided data for the study. Questionnaires and home interviews were applied to generate data for the research. Parenting Stress Index questionnaires focusing on variables like child's behavior ratings issued to the families. Discussions made demographic information about families. Interviews provided in-depth information for this study since the interviewer can request for clarification in case a concept is not clear. Data from questionnaire tools are easy to analyze and determine a trend between the behavioral manifestations of the child as a result of developmental impacts from the orphanage. Generally, methods are to establish the parenting stress between the families that had adopted and those that did not.

Results Discussion

Parents taking care of children from Romanian Orphanage showed high levels of parenting stress compared to those who did not. The period a child spends in an orphanage has an impact on their behavior. The families reported problems of identity conflict with the children since they know that their birth parents are not in the house (Mainemer, 1998). Therefore, institutions are responsible for the social, cultural, and behavior grooming of a child. Traits like avoidance may be as a result of limited interaction from the orphanage by its care providers. The study is useful for the management of these institutions. It provides the loopholes in nurturing moral behavior that requires rectification. Therefore, utilizing Vygotsky's sociocultural theory, parents can develop ethical conduct through social interaction inside and out of the family. Implementation of proposed care ideas will reduce parental stress among adopting families.

Article Two

Another review was on how institutionally cultivated behavior leads to parenting stress by the adopting families. The study engaged parents who adopted children from Eastern Europe. The focus was on father-mother pairs of 109 families measured at an individual scale. The article by Judge (2003) determined that management of early developmental process affect the behavior of children which in turn is a contributing element to the parental stress of their foster families. The research focused on the difference in paternal and maternal parental stress among the participants. The study established the issue to be coherent to both mothers and fathers in the families.

Methodology

The study included 109 mother-father pairs in the United States who adopted 56 boys and 53 girls from Eastern European countries. Children who had resided in their foster families for a period of not more than one year were relevant for the study. Questionnaires and telephone interviews were used to collect data for the research. Mothers and fathers completed the Parenting Stress Index as individuals and not a family. The information collected was on the child's family background, developmental status at the time of adoption, and parent's personality. The study applied a normative group to control the results of the experimentation.

Results Discussion

The study established the difference in the magnitude of parenting stress experienced by mothers and fathers of adopted children. Factors that influenced parental stress include crying, withdrawal, and depression due to a new environment that scored highly compared to mothers (Judge, 2003)). Therefore, the study indicated that mothers and fathers showed a variance in parenting depression as a result of behavior from their children. The finding of this study is coherent with Kirk's theory of social problems affecting foster families. Parents should embrace the challenges and accept to nurture the behavior of their children. Some parents adapt quickly to parental responsibilities than others. Mothers are capable of dealing with parental stress because of factors like motherhood social instincts. The study is vital for families that have adopted children. It provides them with an outline of accommodating behavioral development challenges of the adopted children.

Article Three

Evaluation of challenges faced by adopted youths is essential in determining the causes of parenting stress by the foster families. The study by Bailey (2015) established that difficulties experienced by foster families could be as a result of varying expectations by the parents and the adoptees. The research confirmed that adopted children care for the wellbeing of their parents but challenged by social and cultural circumstances. The study engaged youths displaced from their adoptive families due to their misconduct. For instance, the parents may be overprotective, making no difference to a child's life as it was in the orphanage. Adopted children, especially in their adolescence, need some freedom from parental monitoring to be able to mingle with their age mates without criticism. Despite their new comfort, their previous lives still haunt their present behavior, which may lead to mood disorder among parents.

Methodology

Participants of this study were 23 youths residing a ranch of kids in rural Northwest Montana aged between 17 and 21 years. The institution provides a home for children displaced by their foster families. A semi-structured face-to-face interview technique was used to collect data. The interviews approximately lasted for 30 minutes, recorded, and later transcribed verbatim. MAXQDA qualitative software was used to code the information for analysis.

Result Discussions

The foster families displaced the children in this study because of behavioral challenges that did not impress the parents. The behavior of these youths was a result of the underlying issues from their real families. For instance, most of them came from pov...