8% of all children in foster care have serious emotional problems, 11% of children exiting foster care aged out of the system, in 2011. Children in foster care experience high rates of child abuse, emotional deprivation, and physical neglect. In one study in the United Kingdom "foster children were 7–8 times, and children in residential care 6 times more likely to be assessed by a pediatrician for abuse than a child in the general population". A study of foster children in Oregon and Washington State found that nearly one third reported being abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster home. The "Parent Trauma Response Questionnaire" states that parental overprotection can be just as harmful psychologically as neglect. Development
As of 2019, the majority of children in the foster care system were under 8 years of age. These early years are quite important for the physical and mental development of children. More specifically, these early years are most important for brain development. Stressful and traumatic experiences have been found to have long-term negative consequences for the brain development in children whereas talking, singing, and playing can help encourage brain growth. Since the majority of children are removed from their homes due to neglect, this means that many of these children did not experience stable and stimulating environments to help promote this necessary growth.
The main reasons for children being adopted in the United Kingdom had been unmarried mothers giving up their children for adoption and stepparents adopting their new partners children". United States
In the United States, foster care started as a result of the efforts of Charles Loring Brace. "In the mid 19th Century, some 30,000 homeless or neglected children lived in the New York City streets and slums." Brace took these children off the streets and placed them with families in most states in the country. Brace believed the children would do best with a Christian farm family. He did this to save them from "a lifetime of suffering" He sent these children to families by train, which gave the name The Orphan Train Movement. "This lasted from 1853 to the early 1890s  and transported more than 120,000 250,000? children to new lives." When Brace died in 1890, his sons took over his work of the Childrens Aid Society until they retired. The Childrens Aid Society created "a foster care approach that became the basis for the federal Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997" called Concurrent Planning. This greatly impacted the foster care system.