Foster care placement change: The role of family dynamics and household composition

Abstract

Sibling co-placement and kinship care have each been shown to protect against the occurrence of placement change for youth in substitute care. However, little is known about the effects of different combinations of sibling placement and relative caregiver status on placement change. Nor does the field fully understand how family dynamics may differ in these households. Utilizing data from the Supporting Siblings in Foster Care study, this paper examines family dynamics across four typologies of living composition, and tests the effects of living composition membership on the odds of experiencing a placement change over an 18-month period of time. Findings suggest that across living composition typologies, children who were placed separately from their siblings in non-relative care were more likely to be older, have more extensive placement histories, and experience more placement changes both prior to and during the study than were children in other living composition groups. Family living composition was found to influence the occurrence of placement change. Specifically, children co-placed in kinship care were least likely to experience movement; however, sibling co-placement in non-relative care was also protective. Results reveal the need to conduct additional research into the experiences of children in different family living arrangements, and tailor case management services and supports to children in substitute care accordingly. Implications and future directions are discussed.

Foster care placement instability: A meta-analytic review

“…Also in the long term, there may be a narrative coherence between sibling co-placement and youths' resilience in educational and occupational competence, housing quality, relational adjustment, and civic engagement, especially pronounced among males (Richardson & Yates, 2014). Thus, placement with siblings seems to be in particular a protective factor, and -according to Waid, Kothari, Bank, and McBeath (2016) -to both children co-placed in kinship care as in non-relative foster care.…”

Exploring mechanisms of change in a dyadic relationship intervention for siblings in foster care

“…The dependent variable is a multi-agent construct of sibling relationship quality (MAC-SRQ) (Kothari et al, 2017). the preceding sentence, ' (Kothari et al, 2016' has been corrected to ' (Kothari et al, 2017)' in this version. ]…”

“…[Correction made on 12March 2021, after first online publication: In the preceding sentence, '(Waid et al, 2016)' has been corrected to '(Kothari et al, 2017)' in this version.] The MAC-SRQ contains seven positively valued items from four reporting sources including the youth, their caregiver, a study assessor, and study coder.…”

Visualizing and describing foster care placement pathways

“…Using hierarchical regression analysis, the researchers utilized box plots to visualize the number of placement changes in relation to Child Behavior Checklist scores. More recently, Waid and colleagues (2016) utilized data concerning 328 middle adolescent youth in foster care from Oregon to examine the influence of family dynamics and household living composition on the odds of youth experiencing placement change over 18 months. The authors found a graded protective effect for family membership on the odds of experiencing a placement change, particularly for youth who were co-placed with their siblings.…”