Embeddedness and family knowledge : a comparison of foster children and children at high risk for foster care

Previous research (Flynn, 1992) has shown that foster children manifest marked confusion about the composition of their families of residence and show no relationship between amount of perceived embeddedness within the family of residence and the placement of a biological sibling in the same residence. This study was designed to determine whether the foster children are more confused about family composition and feel less embedded within the family than a group of children from low-income families. The study also compared differences between the groups on measures of Verbal Intelligence, Problem Behaviors and Psychosocial Maturity. The subjects were forty-four 6 to 12 year old foster children and a matched group of thirty-four home-reared children. The home-reared children were all at high risk for foster care due to poverty and family instability. There were no differences between the groups on Knowledge of Family Composition, Verbal Intelligence, Problem Behaviors or Psychosocial Maturity. The home-reared children were reported by their parents as manifesting Problem Behaviors at approximately five times the rate of the non-referred population. Foster children represented themselves as more Embedded within their foster families than the home-reared children. Significant disordinal correlations were found between age groups on Problem Behaviors.