Expectant or parenting youth (EPY) with foster care histories are often in need of a range of services yet experience barriers to accessing and utilizing those services. This exploratory qualitative ...study was informed by ecological systems theory and utilized interviews and focus groups with EPY (
n
= 11) and service providers (
n
= 28) to identify factors that facilitate service utilization for EPY. We found characteristics at the service provider, agency, and system levels that act as facilitators. Service provider characteristics that facilitate service use include empathy and trustworthiness, supportive navigation, and youth-centeredness. Agency facilitators included representative diversity and inclusivity, trauma-informed training and practice, and availability of tangible supports. System facilitators included having a variety of service providers, systems integration, and co-location. Findings provide a more nuanced understanding of the facilitators that contribute to EPY’s service utilization. Future research is warranted to examine how these youth- and provider-identified drivers of service use influence health, mental health, parenting, education, relationships, employment, and housing outcomes for EPY.
•Foster parents experienced additional challenges during the COVID-19 pandemic.•Foster parents were disconnected from typical supports.•Foster parents felt disrespected by professionals ‘in the ...system.’•Informal supports were invaluable to foster parents during this time.•Support networks adapted to provide care in creative ways.
In caring for some of our most vulnerable children, foster parents fill a critically important and challenging role. Yet, research demonstrates that they often experience a lack of social support in this role, a factor that has been shown to buffer against the ill effects of foster parent stress. During the recent COVID-19 pandemic, foster families lost access to typical supports while stressors multiplied. The present study examined the experiences of social support among foster parents during the pandemic through the use of individual semi-structured interviews with 16 licensed foster parents in one Midwestern state. Findings were organized into four main themes, each shedding light on an aspect of foster parents’ experiences of support (or lack thereof) during the pandemic. Themes were titled using direct quotes from participants and include: (1) “On an island,” (2) “You have to respect the foster parent,” (3) “The only way I survived,” and (4) “Supportive in a way that was safe.” Participants indicated that the pandemic exacerbated many challenging aspects of fostering, such as isolation and feeling disrespected. However, some sources of support, such as extended family, were invaluable. Additionally, many forms of support were either developed or adapted to be delivered in accordance with COVID-19 safety guidelines. The findings presented here carry implications for foster care research and practice both within and beyond public health emergencies such as COVID-19.
Contact plans for children in adoption and long‐term foster care are decided on a case‐by‐case basis, as directed by the paramountcy principle in the Children Act (1989). The idea that birth family ...contact helps children resolve issues around attachment, separation and loss, and identity is prevalent in social work practice. However, evidence revealing the detrimental impact of contact has been used to support increasingly restrictive legislation. The current review aims to provide policy‐makers and social workers with a resource to guide decisions in permanency planning by evaluating this evidence and reported outcomes for children. The research question and exclusion/inclusion criteria were formulated and used to develop a search strategy. Of the 412 potential titles returned, 11 were of sufficient quality to include in the thematic synthesis. Results were mixed and significantly influenced by moderator variables such as the pre‐existing relationship between children and their birth families. Outcomes were particularly positive when there was a collaborative approach between birth families and adoptive parents or foster carers. Outcomes tended to be poorest for children who had ongoing contact with maltreating birth parents. The review findings support current policy and previous research in recommending a more reflexive approach to assessing and planning contact.
We used data from Swedish national registers for ten entire birth year cohorts (1972–1981) to examine psychosocial outcomes in young adulthood for youth that left long term foster care after age 17, ...comparing them with majority population peers, national adoptees and peers who had received in-home interventions before age 13. The population was followed in the registers from age 16 to 2005. Data were analyzed in Cox regression models.
Youth who left long term foster care had six-to eleven fold sex and birth year adjusted excess risks for suicide attempts, substance abuse and serious criminality from age 20, and for public welfare dependency at age 25. Overrisks were considerably lower for the in-home intervention group and the national adoptees. Adjusting results for poor school performance in the final year in primary school (ages 15–16) reduced overrisks by 38–52% for care leavers from long term foster care.
Irrespective of issues of causality, poor school performance seems to be a major risk factor for future psychosocial problems among youth who age out of long term foster care. The results suggest that promoting foster children's school performance should be given high priority by agencies.
► All Swedish residents born 1972-1981 were followed in a host of national registers from age 16 to 2005. ► Care leavers from long term foster care had substantially poorer school performance than majority population peers. ► They had lower chances of getting a secondary education than majority population peers with similar school performance. ► They had high excess risks for future suicide attempts, substance abuse, serious criminality and welfare dependency. ► Up to 55% of these excess risks could be statistically “explained” by poor school performance.
•In relation to peers in the general population, children and youth with experiences in foster care generally have poorer educational, economic, housing, health, substance, and criminality outcomes. ...However, comparing former foster children and youth according to their permanency placements (adoption, aging out, long-term foster care, or reunification) reveals significant in-group differences.•A systematic review of the available research comparing former foster children and youth who were adopted to those with other permanency placements finds that those who are adopted experience more positive life outcomes than their non-adopted child welfare-involved peers. However, the implications of these results are limited by the potential for confounding in the studies.•Research from the United Kingdom and the United States that accounted for care stability suggests that children and youth who experience stable foster care before aging out or who continue to receive child welfare services after age 18 have similar life outcomes to children and youth who are adopted. Evidence is less clear for children and youth who reunified with their families.
This study followed PRISMA guidelines to conduct a systematic review of literature published from 2002 to 2022 to assess the differences in outcomes of children and youth who were adopted out of foster care compared to children and youth in foster care (CYFC) who were in other permanency placements (reunified, aged out, long-term foster care). The search was carried out from May 27, 2022 through June 11, 2022 using Google Scholar, ProQuest, PubMed Central, SagePub, ScienceDirect, and Scopus. The review yielded twelve (N = 12) studies from Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Due to the heterogeneity of quantitative metrics across the outcome domains, a narrative synthesis of the results was undertaken. Findings were varied but not contradictory on the educational, economic, housing, health, criminality, and substance use outcomes of CYFC who are and are not adopted. Funding for the systematic review was provided by a grant from the Gift of Adoption Fund.
Abstract
Introduction
A strong association between sleep disturbances and externalizing symptoms has been found among school-aged children. In particular, there is a known association between sleep ...disturbances, irritability, emotional dysregulation, and hyperactivity (e.g., Coto et al., 2018). Limited research, however, has examined this association in a high-risk population of children, such as those in foster care who are at increased risk for sleep disturbances due to heightened exposure to trauma. Thus, the following study sought to assess the association between sleep quality and externalizing symptoms in a population of children in foster care.
Methods
Caregivers with children ages 4–11 were sampled from private Facebook community foster care groups across the United States (n = 410). Caregivers were provided a link to a survey powered by Qualtrics where they were asked to report on the children under their care’s weekday bedtime, overall sleep quality (e.g., “Please rate your child’s overall sleep quality over the last two weeks”), and sleep onset (e.g. “On weekdays, how long does it usually take for your child to fall asleep?”). Child behavioral issues were assessed via the Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI) Parent Rating Form.
Results
A linear regression model was utilized to assess if child weekday bedtime, weekday total sleep duration, and overall sleep quality were unique predictors of externalizing symptoms when controlling for age. Results suggest that weekday sleep duration and bedtime were not significant unique predictors of child behavioral issues, though were significantly and positively correlated at the bivariate level (p=.02, p=.04). Sleep onset and overall sleep quality, irrespective of child age, were found to be significant unique predictors of child behavioral issues and accounted for 1% and 11% of the total variance, respectively.
Conclusion
Results suggest that delayed sleep onset and poorer sleep quality were predictive of increased behavioral issues for children in foster care. Findings persisted when controlling for age, which suggests that children in foster care experiencing sleep disturbances may benefit from more behaviorally focused sleep interventions to improve externalizing behaviors and increase sleep health.
Support (if any):
Abstract
Introduction
Electronic media (EM) use has long been associated with poor sleep in children. Children’s use of EM may also be related to emotional distress – anxiety being one of the more ...prevalent issues, which has been tied to sleep-related problems as well (e.g., Fors & Barch, 2019; Alfano et al., 2007). Children in foster care have often been victims of trauma, which can lead to significant emotional and sleep difficulties (e.g., Kovachy et al., 2013). The Fostering Sleep study examined the association between EM use and sleep among children in foster care; and the additional influence of anxiety.
Methods
Participants were caregivers of foster care children recruited from private Facebook foster care support groups across the United States. The study used a cross-sectional design examining sleep patterns and behaviors, EM use and mental health among children in foster care. An online survey, hosted by Qualtrics, was distributed to caregivers via Facebook. The data of 443 foster care children between the ages of four and 11 (M=6.37, SD=2.21) were included in the analyses.
Results
Children in foster care using EM at bedtime go to bed later than those who are not (p<.001), and their sleep quality was better than those who did not use EM around bedtime (p<0.01). Additionally, 33.3% reported anxiety as a primary diagnosis by a mental health professional. Children without anxiety as their primary diagnosis were found to be more likely to use EM around bedtime (p=.038).
Conclusion
This preliminary analysis indicates the prevalence of EM use close to bedtime may not necessarily be detrimental to sleep for this population; perhaps activities such as watching one’s favorite programming or talking to a loved one online can be comforting and therefore helpful to sleep onset (Eggermont & Van den Bulck, 2006). However, examination of other factors such as type of technology, content of media, and duration of use is warranted. Moreover, children with anxiety as a primary diagnosis may be using less EM at bedtime because EM use may trigger symptoms of anxiety (i.e., Fors & Barch, 2019).
Support (if any):
Child welfare agencies around the world have experimented with algorithmic predictive modeling as a method to assist in decision making regarding foster child risk, removal and placement.
Thus far, ...all of the predictive risk models have been confined to the employees of the various child welfare agencies at the early removal stages and none have been used by attorneys in legal arguments or by judges in making child welfare legal decisions. This study will show the effects of a predictive model on legal decision making within a child welfare context.
Lawyers, judges and law students with experience in child welfare or juvenile law were recruited to take an online randomized vignette survey.
The survey consisted of two vignettes describing complex foster child removal and placement legal decisions where participants were exposed to one of three randomized predictive risk model scores. They were then asked follow up questions regarding their decisions to see if the risk models changed their answers.
Using structural equation modeling, high predictive model risk scores showed consistent ability to change legal decisions about removal and placement across both vignettes. Medium and low scores, though less consistent, also significantly influenced legal decision making.
Child welfare legal decision making can be affected by the use of a predictive risk model, which has implications for the development and use of these models as well as legal education for attorneys and judges in the field.
•In a randomized vignette study, predictive risk model scores can change attorneys’ legal decision-making regarding removal and placement.•Medium and high predictive model risk scores made attorneys more likely to support removal and foster home placement.•Low predictive model risk scores tended to make attorneys more willing to support placement with the biological mother.•Predictive risk model use in child welfare has thus far excluded attorneys, but this is not allowed under ethics rules.
According to government data, there is a slow decline in foster care in Italy, especially for teenagers, caused by an insufficient number of available foster families. The need to provide an intense ...stimulus to foster care is evident. This study conducted individual qualitative interviews with 126 foster parents of teenagers, transcribed and analysed using Atlas.ti software. Valuable indications for social services were individuated. The importance of the foster parents' intrinsic motivations and the suggestion for social services to emphasize them in the recruitment campaigns were reaffirmed. The appropriateness of directing the proposal towards foster parents with previous experience in parenting, foster parenting or working with teenagers was also confirmed. Additionally, results revealed that foster parents connected to foster parents' associations/networks and religious groups are preferred. The importance of the relationship between foster parents and social services and suitable support for the ongoing fostering is pivotal. Establishing a relationship based on trust and the diffusion of the foster care invitation through testimonies and word‐of‐mouth was also highlighted. The initiatives promoting spaces and occasions for teens needing foster care and potential candidates for fostering to meet them have promising outcomes.
This publication discusses foster care in the United States, risk of experiencing homelessness among foster care youth, and possible interventions. Written by Francesca Michelini, Randall Cantrell, ...and Kate Fogarty, and published by the UF/IFAS Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, January 2022.
