It is not hard to notice that people tend to percept children in foster care as troubled, damaged, or problematic. When you google the topic of foster care children or adoption, this is the first thing you see – a list of warnings about children’s difficulties taken into families from shelters. Scientists still research this topic, studying the long-term effects of such factors as abuse and multiple placements to different families. Part of the problem is that the people who stigmatize youth in the foster care system support their stereotypes with research and facts on the psychology and biochemistry of these children’s brains.
In my opinion, there are several factors of stigmatization of children under the supervision of the state. Firstly, these children often have a traumatic childhood, which is exacerbated by the system and leads to deviations in mental development. However, it should be used to understand brain neuroplasticity and the ability to change what has been shaped by the environment and can also be corrected by the environment. Secondly, academics and social workers have a good purpose in talking about the impact of the adoption system on children. Still, they create panic and negative perceptions of these children at the same time. Thirdly, unfortunately, the link between the stigmatization of foster care children and their behavior is a self-fulfilling prophecy when children begin to behave in the way that others expect them to.
In conclusion, the stigmatization of foster care children can be perceived as a circular process where facts and stereotypes are intertwined. Initially, the perception of such children as “bad,” “difficult,” or “troubled” is based on the traumatizing experiences they have in the system and before it. Subsequently, these representations themselves form a request to these children to perform expected behavior. Therefore, stigmatization and negative stereotypes reproduce themselves under their influence.