Fosterbarn som vuxna

Sammanfattning: What are the social positions of adults who were in long-term foster care as children, compared with the general population and with adults who grew up at home in families similar to foster children's birth families? How common is it to have been in foster care? Four approaches are used in this study: - A systematic review of around 50 studies on adult foster children. Conclusions are more pessimistic than in earlier reviews: on a group level, adult foster children's positions achievements seem roughly to be on par with former children from different "risk groups" who grew up at home. -A descriptive epidemiological study of the birth cohorts 1972-74. It is estimated that roughly 3-4% of all Swedish born adults have experience of foster care, in a wide sense. - A mortality study on 14.000 children born 1960-73, placed in foster care before their teens. Results reveal a clear excess mortality among former foster children compared to their peers in the general population, but mainly restricted to men. - A follow-up study comparing 107 adult foster children, born 1958-67, with their 128 adult birth siblings who grew up in their mother's care. All foster children were in care for >5 years before their teens. The vast majority experienced very long and stable foster care. Age differences between siblings with different fates are <5 years. Micro-data from several national registers and local records on e g education, health, parenthood, crime and self support are structured in 41 outcome variables. Statistical analyzises reveal virtually no differences between the two groups, controlling for sex. Former foster girls tend to be better off than former foster boys. Results warrant clear warnings for far-reaching generalizations since sample is small, selective and probably time-specific. Interpretations of results in the light of developmental psychopathology amd the works of Triseliotis suggest that long-term foster care does contain several developmental risk factors. The dynamics of these over time, e g their nnteraction with each other, individual dispositions and protective factors - can be difficult to trace empirically.