will help lower child abuse
Children who come into foster care experience undergo maltreatment or abuse at one point of being in the foster care system (Dozier et al., 2009). In an article written by Bruskas (2008), over half a million children in the United States are under the foster care system. In the same article, it was said that children under the system are vulnerable and that traumatic experiences and increased exposure for more wounds like physical abuse or maltreatment and unstable environments add to the children’s vulnerability. Many of these children have a poor developmental and educational outcome due to the struggle that they experience being in one foster home to another (Bruskas, 2008). That is why, according to the Child Welfare League of America, children in the foster care system typically demand “high levels” of care and they present great challenges for their caregivers.
In a literature review presented by the Universty of California it was found that for the stability in child welfare service, it seems that without proper training, preparation and ample support, children will experience disruption in their foster homes. Bart & Haskins (2009), argue that more than three million children in America are reported to be victims of maltreatment every year and fifteen hundred children die, as a result of being abused. The same study states that parent education leads to better parenting thus resulting to lesser abuse.
Several studies show that parents abuse their children owing to a number of reasons. Four of these have appeared to be the most common among the issues –substance abuse, mental illness, domestic violence, and child conduct problems-(Barth, 2009). Hence the need for parental improvement as the primary goal of child abuse prevention (Barth 2009); this is where an intensive campaign for effective parent training emerges. Parent education according to the Child Welfare Information Gateway is defined as “a training program, that aims to help parents acquire skills to improve their parenting and communication with their children in order to reduce the risk of child maltreatment” Parent education may be held individually or in groups, in the home or face to face, or in the classroom or in the form of a video. Successful programs help parents realize skills needed to build a healthy family. Effective programs may change the parents’s attitude toward parenting and may promote protective aspects and may also prevent child abuse. Chamberlain et al. (n.d.) states that it is very fortunate that today, there is already a growing and solid body of research that supports the effectiveness of trainings. It has now come to the attention of many that trainings that aim to improve on parenting such as the Parent Management Training program are more likely to reduce instability inside the home and also it reduces maltreatment among children.
According to the Child Welfare League of America, proactive strategies have taken place to bring about greater stability for children who are in foster homes. Both the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care and the Keeping Foster and Kinship Parents Trained and Supported offer services that aim to help foster parents and children gain a better grasp of more effective ways to treat children and it also reduces behavior problems in children that leads to a greater probability of maintaining the placement.
Prevention is essential to any activity and being in the foster care system is not an exception. The foster care system nowadays aim to provide children with better environments for living in order to improve their development as adults and as members of society. If parents are not given enough education and preparation for this kind of situation, child maltreatment may result which is one of the gravest scenarios that result from poor parenting. A situation where poor parenting exists impairs the mental health and development of children (Barth & Haskins, 2009).
Parenting plays a major role in child development. If parents had access to programs and services that could improve parenting people would see lesser cases of child abuse and neglect and could also boost the children’s morale and success (Barth & Haskins, 2009). In addition, proper training and parent education does not only improve to eliminate child abuse and maltreatment, it also aims to improve the lives of the parents. Proper parenting could also result to less depression and an upgrade in the employment stature (Barth & Haskins, 2009).
If the government could see the savings that proper training could bring, the country would have a better place for children under the foster system to live in. Through this study, it is greatly recommended that further research and development of training programs should start immediately in order to improve social welfare. It is advisable to develop new and improved foster parent education programs to bring about lesser costs of living in the future; however, limitations should also be considered before implementing such changes. Greater budget allocations for the social welfare professionals should be allocated in order to carry on with the program.
Child abuse requires everybody’s attention thus needs the community’s participation. Parents are not the sole caregivers of the children. At one point in their journey of raising successful individuals, they would need a helping hand to aid them in creating a conducive home those in the foster system.
REFERENCES
Barth R. P., & Haskins R. (2009). Will Parent training Reduce abuse, enhance development, and save money? let’s Find out. The Future of Children. Retrieved from
http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/19_02_PolicyBrief_2.pdf
Barth R. P. (2009). Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect with Parent Training: Evidence and Opportunities. The Future of Children. Retrieved from
http://futureofchildren.org/futureofchildren/publications/docs/19_02_05.pdf
Bruskas, D. (2008). Children in Foster Care: A Vulnerable Population at Risk. Journal of
Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 21, 2, 70-77.
Chamberlain P., Landsverk, J., Price J., & Reid, J. (n.d.). Strategies for Preventing Placement
Disruption in Foster Care: Improving Family and Service System Level Outcomes.
Retrieved from
http://peabody.vanderbilt.edu/docs/pdf/cepi/ChamberlainLandsverk_etal_InterestPaper.pdf
Dozier M., Lindheim O., Lewis E., Bick J., Bernard K., Peloso E. (2009). Effects of a Foster Parent Training Program on Young Children’s Attachment Behaviors: Preliminary Evidence from a Randomized Clinical Trial. Child Adolescent Social Work Journal, 26, 321-332. Retrieved from http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3209265/.
Parent education to strengthen families and reduce the risk of maltreatment. Child Welfare Information Gateway. Retrieved from
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/issue_briefs/parented/parented.pdf
Gwin J. (2003). CWLA Best Practice Guidelines. Retrieved from
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/nrcfcpp/downloads/policy-issues/maltreatment
guidelines.pdf
The University of California, Davis, Extension The Center for Human Services. (2008). A
Literature Review of Placement Stability in Child Welfare Service: Issues, Concerns,
Outcomes and Future Directions. Retrieved from
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