ABSTRACT
Various forces predispose a society toward specific child-care arrangements. Developmental theories are clearly one of them, and, as Seiden (Chap. 6) argues, these are not clearly and totally on the side of familial care in every instance. An argument may well be made (Wolins and Piliavin, 1964), though, that decisions about the preferred location for the deprived child are based on other factors—specifically, ideology, economics, the role of women in society, and certain historical, traditional considerations—rather than child development data. So it has been in the United States; so it is also abroad. Wolins reviews these issues in the context of several East European countries and Israel, and outlines broadly the type of group care programs that have developed there and the consequences they have for the children in care. The paper was originally prepared in the early 1960s. Since then the extreme pro group care views cited have been considerably toned down, but these were and continue to be viable positions—points on the pendular trajectory of favored child care arrangements.
