Reviewing Research Paper Example in the Social Science: Foster Care

The article explores the foster care system. This is a system that gives children to families paid by the state and in turn, take care of foster children. The foster system is also associated with social work services given to the children and the families to ensure that the children are well-taken care off, and they develop a good relationship with the foster parents. There is a very negative image about foster care from which many people who have grown up through the system have very little regard for the system. The system also works to try reunification programs.

These are programs that are associated with guardianship or adoption. The children are connected with willing parents who wish to adopt the children as their children or as guardianship. This is considered as the most permanent move for foster care and guarantees that the children will have a home and parents to look after them. This is unlike foster home whereby, guardianship only takes place because of the money provided by the state. Despite adoption and guardianship, there exist situations that the children and the adoptive parents do not fit and this results in the children being taken back to the foster care. This is considered as the reunification and it is very common in the United States.

This article tries to explore various aspects of the reunification process. It tries to analyze the rate of re-entry to the foster system. This is based on two variables, and the first is the children that have never been reunified before and the second one is the children that have previous experience of being reunified.

The article puts focus on two groups of children. The first group that has had no previous cases of removal from the system and the second is the children who have had cases of separation. The article also explores the implications associated with the reunification of these children in both groups. The article shows the reunification is very common with an approximate of eighteen percent of the children from both having higher chances of reentry. The research from the article also shows that the children with a previous history of reentry have a higher susceptibility of reunification in the future. This shows that reunification is a process that has a negative psychological implication on the children. The article also shows that the time of reentry for children with previous cases is shorter as compared to the ones who its a first time. It shows that there is a growing difficulty of finding permanent placements for children with a history of reunification. The article shows the importance of developing effective child welfare policies that ensure a better transition of these children into placement homes.

The placements are supposed to be permanent but fail to achieve this aspect. It shows the importance of social workers in the placement process of children. More focus should be placed on the mental and behavioral well-being of the children post placement. More guidance and support is necessary during the placement period to ensure a smooth transition and most of all during the reunification period. The reunification period is a very sensitive period that showed that the placement did not work out and many kids place the burden on themselves. This worsens the situation as it alters their perceptions and ultimately their psychology.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY Merav Jedwab, T. V. (2017). Predictors of reentry into the foster care system: Comparison of children with and without previous removal experience. Children and Youth Services Review.