Interviews with 154 program administrators, social workers, foster parents, and health care providers in California found that only one county performed routine mental health evaluations of all foster children. Mental health problems were identified by informants as more severe than medical problems among foster children. (Author/DB)

Medical and psychosocial screening of 149 abused and neglected children entering the foster care system in Cook County, Illinois, found the children to have a greater incidence of chronic medical conditions, weigh less, be shorter, have a high incidence of developmental delays, and have deficits in adaptive behavior. (Author/DB)

Life stories of three child maltreatment survivors illustrate how resilience is fostered by various protective factors. Protective factors include personal characteristics or skills (e.g., precocious maturity, dissociation of affect), generic life circumstances (e.g., good health, social welfare services), and abuse-specific factors (e.g.,…