THE RELATION OF THE FOSTER HOME ENVIRONMENT TO THE MENTAL DEVELOPMENT OF CHILDREN PLACED IN INFANCY

Abstract

The mental development of children placed in foster homes is being studied cooperatively by the Iowa Child Welfare Research Station and the Bureau of Child Welfare. The present report is the first unit of a long-time study. As time progresses, children from infancy to six years of age at time of placement in foster homes will be included in order to determine changes in mental growth with changes in the environment. The unit now being reported includes only children who were under six months of age when placed in foster homes. The state program requires that a child be in the foster home at least twelve months before application for adoption can be made. The group includes all children for whom application for adoption was made during the fiscal year from February 1, 1934 to February 1, 1935 who had been placed before they were six months of age, a total of seventy-three children. These children have been in the foster homes from one to five years. The mean chronological age of this group at time of placement was 2.5 months. The children have therefore experienced essentially only the environment of the foster home.