Foster Care Profiles: A Guide to Identifying At-Risk Placements

Various studies have analyzed the variables that influence the outcome of family foster care. The research aimed to determine whether distinct profiles of foster placements can be identified on the basis of key variables, seeking at the same time to define a predictive function for the success or fa...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of child and family studies 2015-09, Vol.24 (9), p.2579-2588
Main Authors: García-Martín, Miguel A., Salas, María D., Bernedo, Isabel M., Fuentes, María J.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Anti-social behaviour
At risk youth
Behavior disorders
Behavior Problems
Behavioral Science and Psychology
Child and School Psychology
Child development
Child fostering
Child welfare
Cluster analysis
Criticism
Educational Needs
Families & family life
Family
Foster care
Original Paper
Parenting
Psychology
Risk
Social behaviour
Social Sciences
Sociology
Training
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Various studies have analyzed the variables that influence the outcome of family foster care. The research aimed to determine whether distinct profiles of foster placements can be identified on the basis of key variables, seeking at the same time to define a predictive function for the success or failure of foster care. Participants were the foster families of 104 non-relative foster children. A k-means cluster analysis identified three clusters, corresponding to high-, moderate-, and low-risk placements. The variables that formed part of these clusters were behavior problems and impulsivity/inattention in foster children, level of burden in the foster parents, an authoritarian parenting style, and criticism/rejection by the foster parents. A discriminant analysis confirmed the differences between the three clusters and enabled the researchers to create a function for classifying cases in each group. These results can be used to identify at-risk placements and may help to avoid situations that could undermine the foster child’s development. The findings could also be useful in terms of assessing the suitability of foster families, as well for identifying their training needs.
ISSN:1062-1024
1573-2843
DOI:10.1007/s10826-014-0060-z