Psychological Effects

As children enter into new environments,such as foster homes, much of their behavior may differ. Foster parents may notice akward behavior and may worry about the foster child. Here are some common behaviors of a child entering into a new foster home. These behaviors are psycological effects of the child entering into a new foster home. After reading this, foster parents may be more cautious or aware of the behavior of the children they foster in their homes.

Fears

Many fears that contribute to a child having a terrible time assimilating to a foster home include: doing new things, strangers, swimming, darkness, and being alone. Although, these fears may sound peculiar, they must be taken serious. As these fears may seem facetious, they are real to children. In cases such as when a child fears a scary book, it is best to not confront the child about the problem but just fix the the problem by taking away the scary book.

Closed Adoption

John Friel, Ph.D. writes about the child in a "closed adoption," meaning a child who hasn't known that they were adopted. When a child finds out that they have been adopted, it is a natural thing for them to want to know who their biological parents are. To that extent, they have grown attached to their adoptee parents and the parents to them, so the adopted child would want to share this with its adopted parents, while the adoptee's parents may grow hostile of the child's curiosity. For those children who never find their parents, they grow with a sense of depression and have a hard time being able to be in intimate relationships. (iparentingadoption.com/experts/Psycological_Effects)

Emotional Trauma

Emotional trauma can be defined by three factors that cause it which are situations in which: occurred unexpected, the person was unprepared, and the person could not prevent an event from occuring. Physical effects that a child may experiance from emotional trauma is eating disorders, sleeping disorders, and low energy. As for emotional effects, depression, anxiety and panic attacks occur.

Knowing if a child has suffereed from Emotional Trauma:

• How quickly the child gets upset
• How many times a child may get upset
• How threating the child may seem when upset
• How long a child stays upset
• how long it takes for the child to calm down

The child may even re-experience the trauma by their thoughts, nightmares, or seeing images that were related to the event. Even after the child has been treated, symptons of emotional trauma may re-occur even after years of recovery.