BackgroundThis study focuses on children living in foster families with a history of maltreatment or neglect. These children often show adverse mental health outcomes reflected in increased externalizing and internalizing problems. It is expected that these adverse outcomes are associated with increased parental stress levels experienced by foster mothers as well as foster fathers.MethodsThe study sample included 79 children living in foster families and 140 children living in biological families as comparison group. The age of the children ranged from 2 to 7 years. Mental health problems were assessed with the Child Behavior Checklist, while parenting stress was measured with a parenting stress questionnaire including subscales on the amount of experienced stress and the amount of perceived support. The Child Behavior Checklist assessments were based mainly on maternal reports, while the parental stress assessments were based on maternal as well as paternal reports.ResultsAs expected the results showed increased externalizing and internalizing scores for the foster children accompanied by increased parental stress experiences in the foster family sample (however only in the maternal, but not in the paternal stress reports). The stress differences between the foster and biological family groups disappeared, when the children’s mental health problem scores were included as covariates. Moreover, especially the externalizing scores were strong predictors of parental stress in both, the groups of foster and biological parents. The amount of perceived social support was associated with reduced parental stress, but only in the group of biological fathers.ConclusionThe emergence of parental stress in biological as well as foster parents is closely related to child characteristics (mainly externalizing child problems). Possible implications for the reduction of parental stress are discussed as a consequence of the present results.

Abstract. This paper focuses on the longitudinal relationships between foster children’s mental health problems and parental stress across a 1-year interval with three measurements. A sample of 94 foster children and a comparison group of 157 biological children and their families participated in this study. The age of the children was between 2 and 7 years. At the initial assessment, the foster children had been in their foster families since 2–24 months. Based on Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores, the results indicated increased internalizing and externalizing mental health problems in the foster children group. Both mental health scores remained rather stable across the longitudinal assessments in foster as well as in biological children. Internalizing as well as externalizing scores were substantially correlated with parental stress in both samples. Moreover, changes in mental health scores were associated with changes in parental stress. However, cross-lagged panel analyses showed no clear pattern of temporal relationships between children’s mental health scores and parental stress. Implications as well as strengths and limitations of the current study are addressed in the Discussion section.

Children in foster care (CFC) are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the potential influence of foster parents’ parenting on the development of CFC, this literature review and meta-analysis provide an initial overview of how parenting factors in foster families relate to CFC’s developmental outcomes. We aimed to explore (1) whether foster parents’ parenting conceptualizations are related differently to various CFC developmental outcome variables and (2) how characteristics of foster parents and CFC moderate these associations. Following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement, we searched four databases in 2017 (with an update in May 2020). Forty-three primary studies were coded manually. The interrater agreement was 92.1%. Parenting variables were specified as parenting behavior, style, and goals and were distinguished further into functional and dysfunctional parenting. CFC development was divided into adaptive (including cognitive) development and maladaptive development. Meta-analyses could be performed for foster parenting behavior and developmental outcomes, as well as for functional parenting goals and maladaptive socioemotional outcomes in CFC. Associations between functional parenting behavior and adaptive child development were positive and negative for maladaptive child development, respectively. For dysfunctional, parenting effects were in the opposite direction. All effects were small to moderate. Similar results were found descriptively in the associations of parenting style and child developmental outcomes. We found similar effect sizes and directions of the associations between parenting behavior in foster families and the child’s developmental outcomes as those previously reported for biological families. These findings provide strong support for the significant role of parenting in foster families regarding children’s development in foster care.

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Zusammenfassung. Fragestellung: Demografische Eigenschaften wie das Bildungsniveau oder die berufliche Stellung in Familien haben einen wesentlichen Einfluss auf die kindliche Entwicklung. Diese Studie behandelt Gemeinsamkeiten und Unterschiede zwischen für Forschung rekrutierten Pflegefamilien und der Allgemeinbevölkerung. Methodik: Hierfür wurde auf Daten des GROW&TREAT-Projektes zurückgegriffen, das die Entwicklung einer Pflegekindergruppe im Vergleich zu einer Gruppe von Kindern, die in ihren leiblichen Familien leben, betrachtet. Ergebnisse: Es wurden Unterschiede sowohl bei der Stichprobe der Pflegefamilien als auch bei der Stichprobe der Herkunftsfamilien im Vergleich mit Daten des Statistischen Bundesamtes bei den höchsten Bildungsabschlüssen der (Pflege-)Eltern, der Aufteilung der Erwerbstätigkeit und dem Nettoeinkommen der Familien gefunden. Im direkten Vergleich der beiden Stichproben wurde ein größerer Altersabstand zwischen Pflegemutter und -kind als in der Herkunftsfamilie und eine andere Verteilung der Bildungsabschlüsse festgestellt. Weiterhin wurde die Repräsentativität der rekrutierten Pflegefamilienstichprobe durch die Befragung von Pflegekinderdiensten analysiert. Schlussfolgerungen: Die vorliegende Stichprobe zeigte sich als wahrscheinlich repräsentativ für Stichproben von Pflegefamilien. Die Auswirkungen dieser Unterschiede auf mögliche Forschungsergebnisse und Rekrutierungsbesonderheiten werden diskutiert.