Crisis nursery effects on child placement after foster care

The results of a study of the relationship between receiving crisis nursery services and the placement outcomes for young children leaving the child welfare system in Illinois are reported in this paper. The placement outcomes for children leaving foster care whose families received crisis nursery support prior to the children's placement in foster care is compared to the placement outcomes for children whose families received only foster care services. The children in two samples were identified by matching crisis nursery children's data from FY 2006 with children's data in the Illinois Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System and Children Youth and Services Information System databases. After children served by crisis nursery and foster care services were identified, a comparison group of children with like-characteristics whose families received only foster care services was identified using propensity score matching. The children were followed until their out-of-home placement was terminated or until June 30, 2009. The placement outcomes and the length of stay were compared for the two groups. Using logistical regression analysis the results showed that children whose families received crisis nursery services prior to foster care placement were twice as likely to be reunited with their biological families (birth or extended family members) when compared to children whose families received only foster care services. The difference in the length-of-stay in foster care was not statistically significant when the two groups were compared. This preliminary study using administrative data shows that receiving crisis nursery services may have positive effects on the children's ultimate placement outcome after foster care. Additional research is needed to further explore the relationship between placement outcome and crisis nursery services.     

Patterns and Predictors of Early Care and Education for Children in Foster Care

Patterns and predictors of center-based early care and education (ECE) of children in foster care were examined. Participants included 192 pre-Kindergarten age children in foster care. Foster parents reported demographics, ECE and other service use. Foster care history data was abstracted from case files. High rates of attendance in ECE prior to Kindergarten, including Head Start, other center-based ECE, or both were found. Children who attended Head Start were younger when first placed in foster care. Children who attended other center-based ECE services were more likely to live with kinship foster parents and foster families with higher incomes. Latent class analysis of ECE quantity, quality, type, and duration revealed three patterns: part-time Head Start, part-time other ECE, and full-time mixed ECE. Child and foster family characteristics predicted these patterns, illustrating distinct groups with potential implications for the development of children in foster care.     

Replication of the KEEP foster and kinship parent training program for youth with externalizing behaviors

This article presents findings from Maryland KEEP, a replication of KEEP (Keeping Foster and Kinship Parents Trained and Supported), a foster and kinship parent training intervention. We examined child behavior change, changes in caregiver parenting style, and permanency and placement stability at baseline and then after the KEEP intervention. The KEEP intervention was provided to 65 foster and kinship parents providing care for children ages 4–12. Children who participated in the study were referred due to behavior problems, as reported by foster parents: they all scored in the clinical range for externalizing behavior on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). Baseline and posttest analyses assessed for child behavior and parenting style changes. Permanency data, including placement moves and exits from child welfare were examined. Overall, foster and kinship parents reported significantly fewer child behavior problems at posttest; severity levels on the CBCL and scores on the Parent Daily Report decreased. However, there were not any changes in parenting styles from baseline to posttest. Placement stability significantly increased between baseline and post-KEEP intervention. The results provide support for the effectiveness of KEEP for a child welfare population with a high level of behavior problems and for the effectiveness of KEEP as a training program for foster and kinship parents.     

Kinship Care Providers: Designing an Array of Supportive Services

Kinship care, the placement of children with their relatives, has become an integral part of the child welfare system in the United States. It is also becoming a more established way of meeting the needs of children in care in other western countries (Greeff, 1999). However, kinship care did not emerge as a child welfare issue until the late 1980s, and only recently has it become a part of the formalized system for out-of-home care (Hegar & Scannapieco, 1995). Since that time, many states have come to rely more heavily on placements with relatives to meet the needs of children removed from parental custody. For example, California has placed approximately 51% of the foster care population in kinship care, while Illinois has placed 55% (GAO, 1999).Discussion about the reasons for the increases in kinship care has been widespread (Brooks & Barth, 1998; Gleeson, 1999; Harvey, 1999; Hegar & Scannapieco, 2000). Regardless of the impetus behind the increased use of kinship care, states must now incorporate kinship foster care into the traditional foster care system in order to qualify them for federal funding (O'Laughlin, 1998). The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 amended federal law to require that states give priority to relatives when deciding with whom to place children who are in the foster care system (GAO, 1999).The apparent paradigm shift from traditional foster parents to kinship care parents (Hegar, 1999) requires that agencies use both different approaches to assessment (Scannapieco & Hegar, 1996) and provide different types of intervention and services. Adapting placement services to the needs of kinship care providers is the focus of this article.     

Kin and non-kin foster care—findings from a National Survey

This article uses national data to look at the differences between children in kinship and non-kinship care arrangements. Three groups are compared: children in non-kin foster care, children in kinship foster care, and children in “voluntary” kinship care. Children in voluntary kinship care have come to the attention of child welfare services, are placed with kin, but unlike those in kinship foster care, these children are not in state custody. Findings suggest that children in the kin arrangements faced greater hardships than those in non-kin care. They more often lived in poor families and experienced food insecurity. They were more likely to live with a non-married caregiver who was not working and did not have a high school degree. And fewer kin than expected received services to overcome these hardships. In addition, nearly 300,000 children lived in voluntary kinship care arrangements; these children are of particular concern because they are not in state custody and therefore may or may not be monitored by a child welfare agency.     

The relationship between motherhood and re-incarceration

Using matched administrative records from the Illinois Department of Corrections and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, this paper finds that mothers' rates of re-incarceration are higher than those of women without children. It is also found that incarcerated mothers whose children have been in foster care have a higher re-incarceration rate than do women without children. The re-incarceration rate is particularly higher among mothers whose children were placed in foster care at the time of their first incarceration and mothers who had children in foster care but lost their custody before their first incarceration. These findings are more pronounced among white women with records of drug-related offenses or drug addiction than among their African-American counterparts.     

Improving access to health care for foster children: the Illinois model

Children in foster care have lower health status than do their peers and limited access to health care. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services developed HealthWorks, a separate primary care preferred provider system for children in foster care. This study compared claims data for children in HealthWorks with children not enrolled in HealthWorks and with children in Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) who had never entered foster care. Children enrolled in HealthWorks were more likely than were other children to receive all of the services except general inpatient hospitalizations. They had greater odds of receiving general exams and physicians' services and were more likely to visit the emergency room than children who were not enrolled. They were more likely to receive all of the measured services when compared with children receiving Medicaid through AFDC.     

Post-adoption service need and access: Differences between international,kinship and non-kinship foster care

Post-adoption services are important to bolster a family's commitment to their adopted children, thus avoiding potential problems following adoption finalization. It is vitally important to assess post-adoption services in an effort to ensure families are provided with effective supports for successful family functioning. Few investigators have assessed service needs and access according to adoptive family type. This study focuses on international, foster care kin and foster care non-kin adoption types. Utilizing the National Survey of Adoptive Parents, this research investigated twelve post-adoption services. Two comparisons were made with respect to whether, according to the adoptive parents, post-adoption services were received or not received: 1) international and foster care non-kin adoptive families; and 2) foster care kin and foster non-kin adoptive families. International non-kin families were more likely to indicate they discussed post-adoption services than foster care non-kin families, particularly among those who were white, had adopted boys, had no other children in the home, and whose socio-economic background was lower. When comparing foster care non-kin families with kinship families, non-kin families tended to receive more desired services than kinship families, with kinship families indicating less need for services. Policy efforts and program design need to focus on reaching out to families and developing effective post-adoption services based on the expressed needs of families.     

Mental health service utilization and time to care: A comparison of children in traditional foster care and children in kinship care

Existing research indicates that children who are involved with the child welfare system and placed in various forms of out-of-home care experience emotional and behavioral problems. It is also suggested that children placed in kinship care are less likely to receive mental health services than children placed in non-kinship foster homes. This study sought to compare children in non-kinship foster homes to children in kinship care to determine their receipt of mental health services and the time it took for children in kinship care to receive mental health services compared to children in non-kinship foster homes. Using a Cox regression, researchers determined that children in kinship care had a 14% lower likelihood of receipt of mental health services compared to their counterparts in non-kinship foster placements.     

Competencies and problem behaviors of children in family foster care: variations by kinship placement status and race

Formal kinship foster care is an increasingly common form of out-of-home placement, and several important distinctions between kinship care and non-relative foster care have been identified. The present study evaluated the behavior of kinship foster children in comparison to non-relative foster children and children in the general population. A geographically and ethnically diverse sample of foster children (N=240) was assessed for competence and problem behaviors using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL: Achenbach, 1991). Kinship foster children closely resembled children in the general population but differed significantly from their counterparts in non-relative foster care, who consistently scored lower on competence and higher on problem behaviors. Substantial proportions of non-relative foster children were in the clinical range on most CBCL measures, but kinship foster children were no more likely than children from the general population to score above clinical cut-offs. Differences between kinship and non-kinship foster children became less dramatic after accounting for child race and gender, which were both associated with kinship status. Child race had a strong main effect for almost all types of problem behaviors, with children of color showing significantly less problematic behavior. Discussion of these results centers on potential explanations for the observed variations in child behavior by kinship status and race.     

Financial well-being in family-based foster care: Exploring variation in income supports for kin and non-kin caregivers in California

Kinship foster parents have the same responsibilities as nonrelative foster parents and are held to the same standards of rehabilitative care. Nonetheless, their rights to financial supports and their access to other services vary across states depending on the federal eligibility of the child, and/or the licensing criteria caregivers may or may not meet. We know little about the financial supports, well-being, or services of kinship caregivers receiving differential payment schemes and whether or not these financial supports and services make any difference. More fundamentally, in states that operate two- or more -tiered funding schemes for kinship foster parents, we currently cannot even estimate what proportion of kin caregivers receive more, less, or nothing from the government, even though all are entitled to something. Kin and non-kin caregivers in two California counties responded to a written survey focused on the financial wellbeing and income supports available to families. Sources of support were associated with the availability and utilization of other child welfare services for caregivers and for children.     

The relationship between child disability and living arrangement in child welfare

The influence of disabilities on placement outcomes was examined for 277 children who were removed from their biological parents due to substantiated maltreatment. Results indicated that children with a disability were less likely to reunify and more likely to reside in nonkin foster care two years later than typical children. Children with cognitive, emotional /behavioral, and physical disabilities were over four times more likely to be permanently living in nonkin foster care than to be reunified.     

Foster parent and teacher assessments of youth in kinship and non-kinship foster care placements: are behaviors perceived differently across settings?

With a growing number of children living in kinship foster care, it is important to understand how youths are faring in kinship care compared to youths in non-kinship care. In the present study, we first evaluate teacher ratings of problem behaviors exhibited in school by youths in kinship and non-kinship foster care. We then examine whether correspondences between parent and teacher ratings of problem behaviors across home and school settings differ by kinship status. The youths in the study represent an ethnically diverse sample (N = 185), with significantly more children of color in kinship placements. Across the majority of problem behavior scales on the Teacher's Report Form (TRF: Achenbach, 1991), teacher perceptions of youth behavior did not differ significantly according to kinship or non-kinship care placement. Furthermore, the youths in this study had elevated scores relative to general population norms on only a few TRF problem behavior scales. A sub-sample (N = 122) with foster parent assessments on the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL: Achenbach, 1991) permitted comparison of perceptions of youth behavior across the home and school settings for youths in kinship and non-kinship placements. Correlations between the TRF and CBCL composite scale scores (internalizing, externalizing, and total problem behaviors) indicated slightly higher agreement between teacher and foster parent ratings for kinship placements. The non-kinship foster parents reported higher levels of problem behavior at home relative to school. The paper interprets these results and suggests implications for practice and future research directions.     

Kinship care: an evolving service delivery option

It has been eight years since the Children and Youth Services Review first special issue on kinship care. That issue was prompted by the large increase in kinship care placements that occurred in the mid-to-later 1980s and the developing research base documenting the relatively new and often controversial practice. Eight years later, state child welfare agencies continue to rely significantly on kin to act as foster parents. Moreover, federal and state policies have added legitimacy and support for kinship care placements. However, when and how kin should be used as foster parents remains an issue of immense debate. This volume adds more fuel to the fire, providing much needed research to inform the debate, yet at the same time raising more questions than it answers.     

Fostering homeless children and their parents too: the emergence of whole-family foster care.

Children should not be placed in out-of-home care simply because their families lack the means to provide for their basic needs, yet this practice continues nationwide. A new program based in St. Paul, MN, gives county social service departments the placement option of whole-family foster care. The target population is adult parents and minor children without stable residences, where the children are at risk of placement in out-of-home care. Although the parents and children may have special needs, there are no safety risks that would necessitate separating children and parents. The program's design is described and policy questions discussed.     

Effects of a Foster Parent Training Program on Young Children’s Attachment Behaviors: Preliminary Evidence from a Randomized Clinical Trial

Young children who enter foster care experience disruptions in care and maltreatment at a point when maintaining attachment relationships is a key, biologically based task. In previous research, we have found that young children experience challenges as they form attachments with new caregivers. They tend to push their new caregivers away, even though such children are especially in need of nurturing care. Further, many caregivers do not respond in nurturing ways when their children are distressed, which we have found is problematic for young children in foster care. We developed an intervention that is designed to help caregivers provide nurturance even when children do not elicit it, and even when it does not come naturally to them. This paper presents preliminary findings of the effectiveness of this intervention on children’s attachment behaviors. Forty-six children were randomly assigned to either the experimental intervention or to an educational intervention. For three consecutive days, attachment behaviors were reported across three distress-eliciting situations. Children whose parents had received the experimental intervention showed significantly less avoidance than children whose parents had received the educational intervention. These preliminary results suggest that the intervention is successful in helping children develop trusting relationships with new caregivers.     

Kinship foster parenting; gender,class and labour-force participation

Objective: Knowledge about gender, class and labour-force participation of kinship foster parents in European countries is scarce. This study examines the gendered structure and generational pattern of kinship foster parenting in Norway and compares class components and labour-force participation of kinship foster mothers to the larger female population and to non-kinship foster mothers.

Method: The analysis is based on survey data on relationships between foster parents and child, social demographics and placement characteristics from 123 kinship and 88 non-kinship foster mothers of children in state custody. Labour Force Survey and Education Statistics from Statistics Norway were used to compare the kinship sample to the average female population.

Findings: Kinship foster care in Norway is gendered, in that it is women who assume the responsibility for relatives' children. Kinship foster care reflects class differences in that the educational level of kinship foster mothers and their household income are lower than the average female population and of non-kinship foster mothers in Norway. The labour-force participation of kinship foster mothers in Norway is comparable to that of the country's female population in general, except for women aged 35–55 with children under seven, among whom labour-force participation is lower than for the female population.     

Broadening Our View

Summary

The growth in child welfare caseloads and the increasing use of kinship foster care has raised new questions about effective permanency planning. The majority of children in kinship foster care are children of color and have been less likely to exit the custody of the child welfare system than children placed in traditional foster care. Permanency planning which ensures the long-term protection and well-being of children from diverse cultural backgrounds requires a broad view of family, ongoing striving for cultural competence, collaboration between the formal child welfare system and the kinship systems of children in state custody, and a long-term view of permanency planning and child-rearing that builds on the case-management capacities of kinship networks to support permanent plans, looks beyond the child's exit from state custody, and helps families and larger kinship systems make long-term plans for the protection, permanence, and well-being of children.     

Kinship care of the abused child: the New Zealand experience.

The concept of continuity--keeping children within their own kinship, community, and cultural networks--has found international favor in contemporary child welfare practice. This principle is reflected in the 1989 New Zealand Children, Young Persons, and Their Families Act. The Act represents a significant shift--from the state to the family--in responsibility for children in need of care. The increasing use of the Family Group Conference process allows families to make decisions about the future of kin children and reflects the belief that, although most abuse is intrafamilial, the family will also be the most committed to keeping the child safe. Other countries have adapted this model to suit their own cultural child welfare needs. The international trend toward formal use of kinship care for children who have suffered abuse or neglect is likely to continue as foster care resources shrink. Drawing on qualitative research, this article describes the experiences of caregivers and their kin children who have been the subject of a care and protection order.     

The wellbeing of foster children and their relationship with foster parents and biological parents: a child’s perspective

Most Dutch foster children live permanently in foster families. It is often assumed that foster children have ambivalent loyalties and attachments to their birth parents and foster parents and are torn between the two. In this study 59 children between 10 and 18 years placed in long term foster care completed standardised questionnaires on the relationship with their parents respectively foster parents and their wellbeing. Results show that, on average, foster children have positive feelings of loyalty and attachment towards both their foster parents and biological parents. However, their wellbeing appeared mainly related with stronger attachment representations towards their foster parents. This study found no indications for a competing position of biological parents and foster parents from the perspective of the child. Nevertheless, foster children who see their foster and biological parents as more vulnerable or experience stronger normative boundaries, feel worse compared to children who experience this feelings less.