Abstract
Foster care is an important part of the child protection system; however, it seems that some foster children are not protected – they are abused and neglected. The aims of this article are to confirm on a small scale whether children in foster care are indeed being abused and neglected and to develop an understanding of factors contributing to the abuse and neglect of these foster children. A qualitative research approach was applied. Findings confirmed the occurrence of abuse and/or neglect and provided information on factors relating to foster parents and the foster care system itself contributing to this phenomenon.
Highlights
Foster care is an important strategy that forms part of child protection systems around the world
How many cases of abuse and neglect of foster care children by their foster parents have you encountered during the last year?
Factors related to foster parents that contribute to neglect and abuse
Summary
Foster care is an important strategy that forms part of child protection systems around the world. Data from various studies on maltreatment of foster care children in the UK, USA and Australia from 1999-2008 indicated that foster children are abused and neglected; Biehal and Perry (2010) came to the conclusion that is difficult to compare results as different units of analysis are used and a distinction is not always made between allegations and confirmed cases of maltreatment. They concluded, that the prevalence of maltreatment of foster children ranges between 3% and 19% of children in foster care in the UK
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