Government Funded Study Confirms Kids do Worse in Foster Care than Those Who Have Never Been in Foster Care

Image source: Hillside.com

by Brian Shilhavy
Editor, Health Impact News

Another major study confirms what many other studies have found, and what we have published here at Health Impact News over the past several years many times: The Foster Care System is a huge failure that harms children, and children who never enter the Foster Care System do much better.

For some of our previous articles on this, see:

Study: Children from Poor Parents, Even if they have a Drug Problem, do Worse if Put into Foster Care

Foster Care Children are Worse Off than Children in Troubled Homes – The Child Trafficking Business

The U.S. Foster Care System: Modern Day Slavery and Child Trafficking

Child Kidnapping and Trafficking: A Lucrative U.S. Business Funded by Taxpayers

The most recent study was funded by you, the American taxpayer, and conducted by the CDC:

Demographic, Health Care, and Fertility-related Characteristics of Adults Aged 18–44 Who Have Ever Been in Foster Care: United States, 2011–2017

The study analyzed 6 years of interviews spanning September 2011 through September 2017, and included 11,527 male and 14,439 female respondents aged 18–44.

The objective of the study:

This report presents demographic characteristics, health service access and use, and timing of key fertility-related milestones among adults aged 18–44 who had ever been in foster care as compared with those who had never been in foster care in the United States.

Some of the results of the study:

• Among women who had been in foster care, one-half had given birth to a child by age 20; that compared with one-quarter of women who had never been in foster care.
• Two-thirds of women who had been in foster care received some form of public assistance, compared with one-third of other women. Just over half of men who had been in foster care received public assistance, more than double the rate for other men.
• About 25% of men and 21% of women who had been in foster care did not have a high school or GED diploma, more than double the figure for other adults.
• Lower percentages of men and women who were ever in foster care had a bachelor’s degree or higher (4.8% for men and 9.1% for women) compared with those who had never been in foster care (31.1% and 36.2%, respectively)
• Among men who had been in foster care, more than 34% lacked health insurance, compared with about 22% of other men. Foster care alumni also were more likely than others to be on Medicaid and to lack regular access to private doctor or a health maintenance organization.
• Both men and women who had been in foster care were less likely than other adults to be married, and more likely to be cohabiting with a partner outside of marriage.
• More than one-half of men and women who had ever been in foster care had engaged in their first sexual intercourse by age 15, compared with 28% of men and 25% of women who had never been in foster care.

Read the full study here.

See Also:

Foster Care Continues to be Child Sex Trafficking Pipeline in 2020 – How Do We Stop It?