Levels of Analysis and Principles of Ecological Metaphor in Foster Care

Analysis Levels

According to Kloos et al. (2011), the Ecological Systems Theory takes into consideration distinct levels of analysis that individuals come across, each representing a unique environment that helps to shape their behavior. These different levels include the Microlevel, Mesolevel, and Macrolevel, all of which also interact with each other and impact one’s development. In the context of those in the Foster Care System, Hayes, Julien-Chinn, Geiger, and Lietz support the fact that the environments of youth in Foster Care might be consistently changing and therefore their micro, meso, and macro levels of analysis are also going to become unstable (2016). Those in the Foster Care System are often pulled away from their houses, so they also are losing their family structure, their financial freedom, and their support system, etc. They are also oftentimes changing schools and therefore changing social lives; and less likely to engage in outside organizations or extracurricular activities. On a larger scale, they are also impacted by lack of government/political aid and support which can cause overcrowding and other major problems in the Foster Care System.

The microsystem is defined as a structure of the most immediate influences in one’s life, which include family, friends, social roles, and relationships. According to Krinsky, sometimes when children are placed into Foster Care, they are not only taken away from their biological parents and lack stability, but they can also be taken away from their friends, their extended family members, and even potentially their siblings (2010). This part of their environment (at their Microlevel), which has such a large impact in shaping their behavior, has now become ever-changing for the child.

A good example of this can be shown with their parent-child relationship which initially changes from biological parent to foster parent, and can even change again to various other foster parents as well, depending on how many homes the child gets placed into. In their qualitative study, Coyne and Luke (2008) deliberate how a foster child’s self-esteem might be looked at if the child were placed into a home with a model foster parent as opposed to a less ideal one. As children within the Foster Care System potentially lack a connection with their birth parent as well as a more fixed parental figure, this can contribute to a lower self-worth and other behavioral problems.

The Mesosystem is defined as the secondary influences in an individual’s environment such as schools and churches. In Krinsky’s research (2010), she suggests that individuals in Foster Care are taken away from their schools and extracurricular activities; forcing them to engage with new peers because of this sudden change in school systems. The social lives of many Foster Care youth change in relation to schools and organizations, as well as their surrounding environment. This inconsistency can cause them to feel socially isolated, which can negatively affect their mental health and is unfortunate for these children due to the fact that proper medical care is difficult for them to receive once in the Foster Care System. This has a significant influence on their present and future success. Statistically, the research has shown that 75 percent of these children will get held back in school, while only 15 percent will attend college. In addition, 25 percent will become homeless, and another 25 percent will become incarcerated.

The macrosystem is defined as the largest ecosystem made up of cultural influences, as well as societal, political, governmental, or institutional impacts, and belief systems. Henderson (2004) states that the rate of children needed to be placed into Foster Care homes is constantly going up, and therefore so is the need for available foster homes to place them into. Unfortunately, there is a lack of foster parent training, social and agency support, and foster parent satisfaction, as well as “limited procedures for assessing quality of care”. In addition, due to the scarcity of foster home placements, there is an overcrowding of foster homes in many areas. This can often result in maltreatment, neglect, abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional), and lack of supervision. Additionally, there are various special needs that foster children might have as a result of their past trauma, but because of the overcrowding those needs are often not taken care of. This can result in attachment disorders, emotional or behavioral problems, and/or developmental deficiencies, etc. When there is a limit for mental and physical health care options and a lack of parenting skills set forth by an absence of government funding/political policies (the Macrolevel), this has detrimental effects on the child’s behavior.

Principles of Ecological Metaphor

When something in life changes, it sequentially causes other changes in one’s environment to occur; this is known as interdependence. Research by Salas, Fuentes, Garcıa-Martın, and Bernedo (2015) indicates that the traumatic events that led up to a child ending up in Foster Care are multiplied by the traumas that can often occur after being exposed to different aspects of life, such as new surroundings and new authority figures. Those changes in the child’s atmosphere effect the child’s views on life, their mental outlook, and their attitudes, amongst other things. This is a series of events that leads to attitude changes, and begins with being placed in Foster Care (thus acting as a domino effect).

According to Kloos et al., (2011), cycling of resources refers to the use of one's resources, such as financial resources, personal, social, or physical resources that are dispersed within a community. It is suggested that the resources that are essential within a family type community include “time, nurturance, attention, emotional support, and money”. As has already been determined, these types of resources for Foster Care youth might be very limited. They lack in access to financial support, sometimes they lack peer, social, or parental support, and they lack in access to medical care, as well educational support. In her research, Ahmann takes this a step further and states that teens who age out of Foster Care are also limited in these types of resources which makes it extremely difficult for them lead successful and healthy lives.

Adaptation refers to the action of conforming to new customs and ideals in one’s natural surroundings. Children can enter the Foster Care System for many reasons: loss of parental guidance, lack of familial support, abandonment, or forcible separation of their biological parent(s). Whatever the reason, they must learn to adapt to their changing environments. As previously discussed, they will be changing home lives, peers, support systems, schools; new things may even start to become limited to them that were not previously, and they may even have to learn to follow new rules or guidelines. Their entire family dynamics will have become transformed. These are the external forces that many Foster Care youth must adjust to.

Succession can be defined as being in the present and using past historical outcomes to come up with a plan for bettering the future. According to Henderson (2004), there have been many changes in Foster Care policies due to failures that have occurred in its history. For example, in the 1800s orphans were sent to institutions known as Orphan Asylums, in which the children's fundamental needs such as food and shelter were met at a minimum level. In addition, many times they were put in the same category as criminals and the mentally insane, and so they also lived in the same settings with them. Since then, many policies have led to different changes in the way that the Foster Care System was viewed and the ways that orphans were treated. In fact, it was not even until the 19th Century that “child abuse and parental neglect became acknowledged as major problems, which led to child protection agencies such as the Societies for the Prevention of the Cruelty to Children (SPCC) to emerge”.

Looking at the Foster Care System's history and seeing how far our society has come since the 1800's and how we used to treat orphans, we have definitely come a long way. However, there is still a long way to go as far as making improvements in government spending and policies goes.