The Influence of Policy Context on Transition Age Foster Youths' Views of Self-Sufficiency

In this exploratory study, focus group methodology was used to examine the potential influence of policy context on informing transition age youth (TAY) views of self-sufficiency upon aging out of foster care. The authors purposively selected two different policy contexts concerning extended foster care: New York City and Los Angeles County. Compared to New York City, Los Angeles has a relatively newer policy concerning extending the age of foster care benefits to 21. Four focus groups were conducted (2 in each location) with TAY recruited from community-based foster care agencies. The total number of participants (aged 18–22) was 21 (13 in Los Angeles and 8 in New York). In both policy contexts, participants defined self-sufficiency mainly as economic independence and planning for success. However, while Los Angeles TAY emphasized a need to “strive through it,” meaning persevere through self-reliance, New York TAY believed that self-sufficiency could be at least partially achieved by leaning on others, including social services. The findings help to illustrate how varying policy landscapes, including those that are in flux, can shape client understandings of core beliefs related to service utilization and client–provider interactions. Implications for child welfare policy and practice are proposed.     

Grandparent and Kinship Foster Care: Implications of Licensing and Payment Policies

ABSTRACT

In this article, we examine the different licensing and payment policies in the United States for kinship foster care and assess the potential impact of licensing policies on the likelihood that grandparents or other kin will become licensed as formal kinship foster care providers. With this information, discussion is presented that outlines possible barriers to formalized foster kinship care placement and identifies the need for changes in public policy that could lead to increased program access for kinship foster caregivers.     

Identity Development in Emancipated Young Adults Following Foster Care

This qualitative study explored the experiences of 12 youth who were emancipated from state‐sponsored foster care at age 18 and attempted to establish themselves independently. The findings were analyzed through the lens of two developmental theories: separation/individuation and relational/cultural. Interview data revealed that the often‐difficult experiences of emancipating from foster care influenced an evolving sense of self. Participants identified strongly with self‐sufficiency and help‐avoidance and reported an inaccessibility of peer support. Although much of the current literature focuses on critiques of public foster care programs, this study provides insights into how youth have been personally affected by emancipation. It also contains implications for social work practice with emancipated and soon to be emancipating youth.     

Increasing Competency,Self-Confidence,and Connectedness Among Foster Care Alumni Entering a 4-Year University: Findings from an Early-Start Program

Research shows that few foster care alumni enroll and complete post-secondary education. For those who do enroll, many experience challenges associated with academic and social adjustment and are at risk of dropping out. Many college-based programs are being developed and are available to foster care alumni to support them during their post-secondary education. This study used pre-tests, post-tests, and journal entries of seventeen participants to evaluate a strengths-based, resilience-oriented early-start program for newly enrolled students at a large public university that provides knowledge about the institution, resources (e.g., tutoring), and social support necessary for foster care alumni to make a smooth transition into college life and to increase short and long-term student success. Quantitative and qualitative findings indicate that students who participated in the early-start program showed increased confidence and competency in academic and social adjustment. Findings also showed personal growth (e.g., building resiliency) and an increased connectedness among students who participated in the program. Study findings can inform the development of new on-campus support programs and help enhance existing programming. Future research should address short and long-term outcomes and experiences of students who are former foster youth who have participated in on-campus support programs.     

Teenagers in foster care: Issues,themes, and debates from and for practice and policy

The task of fostering adolescents is unique, requiring skills, qualities, and information that acknowledge each young person's particular needs. This editorial summarises a range of research in this special issue covering parenting styles, transitions out of care, child sexual exploitation, and the needs of LGBTQ and separated teenagers. Three themes emerging from the papers are discussed: autonomy and control; risk, resilience, and trauma; and relationships, identity, and stigma.     

Foster Carer Strain and its Impact on Parenting and Placement Outcomes for Adolescents

Drawing on recently completed research funded by the Departmentof Health, this article examines the extent of strain on thefoster carers of adolescents, its influence on parenting practicesand the overall impact on placement outcomes. The research find­ingsshow that foster-carers’ parenting capacity was markedlyreduced in a number of specific areas when they had experienceda high number of stressful life events in the six months priorto the young person’s arrival or were under considerablestrain during the placement. Conduct problems, hyperactivityand violent behaviour by the young people increased carer strain,as did contact difficulties with the children’s families.Problems in contacting social workers were linked to elevatedstrain, whilst strain was lessened when carers received helpfrom friends or from local professionals. Signifi­cantlyhigher disruption rates were experienced by strained carersand these placements were also less beneficial to the youngpeople.     

Defining Success: The Perspective of Emerging Adults with Foster Care Experience

Youth with experience in the foster care system are often more susceptible to negative outcomes in adulthood due to higher levels of cumulative risk; however, there is little research on perceptions of resilience among this population. This mixed-method pilot study presents results from a modified prototype analysis that examined both qualitative and quantitative aspects of how emerging adults (ages 18–25; n = 18) with foster care backgrounds viewed the concept of “success.” Specifically, the approach involved a demographic questionnaire, modified prototype analysis, Developmental Assets® assessment, and focus group discussion providing valuable insight into the perceptions and experiences of emerging adults who have spent time in the care of foster families. Results share youth's perspectives of how their foster families contributed to resiliency and successful adult development. Findings indicate that the definition of “success” is complex and subjectively defined based on personal goals and that specific Developmental Assets® are important for foster families to promote youth resilience. This deeper insight into perspectives of former foster youth gained through the modified prototype analysis can guide agencies, advocates, and parents, permitting a more intentional promotion of success, and maximizing opportunities for resiliency.     

Foster parent training programmes for foster youth: a content review

Foster parent training is a well‐recognized component of providing quality care in child welfare. Well‐trained foster parents can improve placement stability, reduce behavioural problems and encourage successful reunification or adoption. A review of the foster parent training programmes can provide a better understanding of the current state of foster parenting training and inform future practice and policy‐making. This review examined published and unpublished research on foster parent training conducted from 1970 to 2014 and provided an overview of the structure and content of 22 foster parent training programmes. Common patterns in the content and structure of foster parent training programmes are identified and discussed, highlighting trends towards multi‐session in‐service training with eclectic content. The development of new training programmes with strong theoretical grounding that train foster parents on specific behavioural skills is recommended.     

Carers and Professionals' Perspectives on Foster Care Outcomes: The Role of Contact

This study investigates the association between the contact of children or young people in care with their family, and the foster care placement evaluation (positive or negative) in Portugal. According to the perspectives of foster carers and service professionals' perceptions regarding children and young people's reactions, during and after the visits, are measured. Utilizing a quantitative approach, two fostering services teams and 140 foster carers completed questionnaires, which had 212 children in common. Results indicated that despite the importance of continued contact, especially for children and their parents, it was not determined to be essential to long-term placement. On one hand, there was the perception that a high percentage of children expressed positive reactions during and after the visit, while on the other hand, this didn't influence the perception of placement success. This study also showed significant differences between foster carers' and the professionals' perceptions on several dimensions of foster care, especially the children's reactions during visits. These differences need to be further analyzed in future research and the outcomes used to help improve contact management.     

The Effects of Early Institutionalization and Foster Care Intervention on Children's Social Behaviors at the Age of Eight

The present study compared the social behaviors of eight‐year‐old previously institutionalized Romanian children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project (BEIP) in two groups: (1) children randomized to foster care homes (FCG), and (2) children randomized to care as usual (remaining in institutions) (CAUG). Children were observed interacting with an age‐ and gender‐matched unfamiliar, non‐institutionalized peer from the community during six interactive tasks, and their behavior was coded for speech reticence, social engagement, task orientation, social withdrawal, and conversational competence. Group comparisons revealed that FCG children were rated as significantly less reticent during a speech task than CAUG children. For CAUG children, longer time spent in institutional care was related to greater speech reticence and lower social engagement. Using an actor–partner interdependence model, CAUG children's behaviors, but not FCG, were found to influence the behavior of unfamiliar peers. These findings are the first to characterize institutionalized children's observed social behaviors toward new peers during middle childhood and highlight the positive effects of foster care intervention in the social domain.     

Characteristics of the Social Support Networks of Maltreated Youth: Exploring the Effects of Maltreatment Experience and Foster Placement

Little is known about the social support networks of maltreated youth or how youth in foster care may compare with those who remain with their parent(s). Social network characteristics and perceived social support were examined between (1) maltreated and comparison youth, (2) maltreated youth who remained with their biological parent, those with a foster parent, or a those with a kin caregiver, and (3) youth in stable placements and those who have changed placements. Data came from a sample of 454 adolescents (241 boys, 9–13 years old at enrollment) who took part in a longitudinal study of child maltreatment. Participants completed three assessments approximately 1 year apart. Results showed that on average, maltreated adolescents named significantly fewer people in their network than comparison adolescents. At Time 2, comparison adolescents reported more same‐aged friends. In the maltreatment group, youth with a foster parent reported significantly more older friends than maltreated youth with a kin caregiver. Fewer maltreated youth named a biological parent on the social support questionnaire at all three time points. More youth in kinship care described their caregiver as supportive than those in foster care. These findings indicate that despite heterogeneous placement histories, social support networks among maltreated youth were very similar.     

Children in Residential and Foster Care – a Swedish Example

The article reports on a longitudinal study of children placed in a children's home in Malmö, Sweden, at the beginning of the 1980s. The 26 children, placed when younger than four years of age and staying more than four weeks in the children's home, were followed up three and nine months after leaving the children's home as well as five, ten and fifteen years later. Interviewing the parties concerned was the predominant research method. Twenty of the 26 children in the research group also had later experiences of out-of-home care, including foster care, in addition to the stay at the children's home. This article is about them, 15–20 years old when interviewed in the latest follow-up study. Three aspects of outcome are focused on: the degree of stability in the children's living conditions; relationships to parents and foster parents; well-being and emotional and behavior problems. Bearing in mind that the concept of well-being is relative, a cautious conclusion is that a third of the children in the study experienced well-being, a third felt o.k., and a third had serious problems, including criminal activities and drugs. The somewhat unclear connection between well-being, stability in living conditions, and sense of family belonging is discussed.     

Kinship Foster Care and Its Impact on Grandmother Caregivers

Summary

Kinship foster care programs are designed to address the needs of relatives, usually grandparents, who have taken in children who have been removed from their homes voluntarily, or following a substantiated report of neglect and/or abuse. The author reviews the history of kinship foster care nationally and examines related research. Reported are findings on a survey of kinship foster care programs nationwide and from qualitative interviews with nine grandmothers from New York City who were kinship foster care providers. Particular attention was paid in these surveys to the impact of kinship foster care on families caring for children with disabilities.     

Independent fostering agencies uncovered: the findings of a national study

This paper presents the findings of a survey of independent fostering agencies (IFAs) in England, Scotland and Wales. Information was gathered about their operational arrangements, services, fees, staffing, foster carers and the children and young people in placement. This information is supplemented by an earlier evaluation of one large English IFA and by reference to the available relevant literature. The expansion of the IFAs has been generally greeted with hostility by local authority managers because of what is perceived as the loss of foster carers to the independent sector, the costs of the IFAs and their position outside the public welfare sector. This paper questions the validity of these views following an examination of the status of the agencies, the background of their foster carers and the circumstances surrounding the placements of the children and young people. It concludes by identifying gaps in our knowledge and areas for future research.     

No place like home: lessons learned and lessons forgotten –the Children Act 1948

The Children Act 1948 emphasizes foster care as the alternative provision for children who cannot be cared for by their own families; it also underlines the responsibility of the state to provide good alternative homes where necessary. The Act reflects contemporary developments in psychological thinking about the importance of attachment relationships, and a recognition, derived in part from the experiences of evacuation, of the harmful effects on children of separation from their families. However, greater awareness, from the 1970s on, of the deficiencies of the state as parent and the complexity of relationships between children, their birth parents and foster families led to the promulgation of 'inclusive' and 'task-centred' models of foster care, reflected in the shift of nomenclature from foster 'parenting' to foster 'caring'. These approaches may, however, be in danger of minimizing both the attachment needs of many children and young people within the foster placement and the parenting role which is appropriate in many placements. A model of foster care, derived directly from the first Children Act, which stresses these core relationships, should be developed alongside that which emphasizes task-centred, time-limited provision.     

Service Process and Quality in Therapeutic Foster Care: An Exploratory Study of One County System

ABSTRACT

This study assesses the quality of services in the therapeutic foster care programs used by one county in the Midwest. Using a consultative quality assurance review methodology, evaluators examined 67 randomly sampled cases across seven agencies to assess the service quality issues experienced by children. Following interviews with staff, foster parents, and children, and a review of case records, reviewers observed failures in service and in adherence to national program model standards and state regulations. The research indicates the need for consistent monitoring of child-placing agencies and the need for additional research linking service quality with foster care outcomes.     

NHS Purchaser–Provider Relationships in England and Wales: The View from Primary Care

Primary care organizations (PCOs) in the National Health Service in England and Wales are required to purchase most hospital-based health care for their populations. This 'quasi-market' in health care can be seen as 'relational', characterized by an emphasis on cooperative long-term relationships rather than on true competition. The English government has recently introduced new market mechanisms as a response to the perceived weakness of the relational market. This article draws on three qualitative case studies of PCOs to investigate whether PCO personnel interviewed in 2005/6 concurred with that perception of weakness. Overall, relationships between PCOs and hospital services providers were regarded as unbalanced in favour of the latter, despite a shared framework of central government policy. Commissioners were seen as generally weak, and providers were judged to be generally unresponsive to PCOs' wishes. Top–down pressure by governments on PCOs and providers of hospital services was more important than commissioning power in shaping hospital services. It remains to be seen whether the remarketization strategy succeeds in strengthening the commissioning function in primary care.     

Foster children as young adults: many motherless, fatherless or orphaned: a Swedish national cohort study

We examined prevalence of parental deaths among former out‐of‐home care youths at age 18 and 25, and odds of parental loss compared with peers from similar socio‐economic childhood backgrounds. The study utilized Swedish national register data for 12 entire birth cohorts (1972–1983), 35 550 former out‐of‐home care youths and 1 138 726 cohort peers without out‐of‐home care experiences. Logistic regression models were used to compute odds ratios for parental loss through death. It was especially common among former residents of long‐term out‐of‐home care to be motherless (11%), fatherless (11–13%) or orphaned (3–4%) at age 18, compared with non‐foster care peers (1%, 3% and 0.03%). Twenty‐six per cent had lost at least one parent (4% among non‐foster care peers). At age 25, the figures had increased considerably; 36% had lost at least one parent, compared with 7% in the majority population. Adjusted odds ratios for parental loss among long‐term care youth were strikingly high, particularly for having a deceased mother. In short‐term and intermediate care, most youths with deceased parents had suffered parental loss before entering foster care. For youth from long‐term care, parental death after start of placement was most common.     

Care leavers: A British affair

Individuals in and leaving care within the UK experience numerous dilemmas that include a lack of supportive housing and potential homelessness, lower educational attainment and occupational status, and greater likelihood of moving into poverty. These adverse situations—all of which are interrelated—shape their present and future health status. Models of these processes usually focus on individual behaviours/characteristics, the consolidation of positive identities through the development of supportive networks, and specific social policies germane to this group. Although informative, these models neglect many key contextual factors that shape these outcomes. In this paper, we present a model of care‐leaving that incorporates developments in the political economy of health literature to show how differing welfare state arrangements shape health by mediating the distribution of economic and social resources over the life course for populations in general and for those in and leaving care specifically. The key recommendation suggested by this model is to focus upon developing public policies to address the vulnerable situations care leavers experience associated with skewed income distributions, lack of housing affordability, weak employment standards, and lack of access to higher education typical of liberal welfare states such as the UK.