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

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Abstract

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.

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      Children of older ages, without disabilities, of color (e.g., African American, Native Americans), and who were court-ordered into placement were more likely to be placed into kinship care than non-kin foster care (Beeman & Kim, 2000; Winokur et al., 2009). Holtan, Rønning, Handegård, and Sourander (2005) in a study of 214 children in state custody in Norway, found that children in kinship care had fewer emotional and behavioral problems when they entered care compared to their counterparts in non-kin foster care (Font, 2015; Holtan et al., 2005; Keller et al., 2001; Xu & Bright, 2018). In terms of precipitating circumstances, children initially placed into kinship care were more likely to have been removed from their homes of origin due to parental substance abuse and parental incarceration, while the trigger for most children’s placement into non-kin foster care was parental mental health problems (Cuddeback, 2004; Leloux-Opmeer, Kuiper, Swaab, & Scholte, 2016).

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    The authors gratefully acknowledge the case managers and foster parents of The Casey Family Program who made this study possible. They also appreciate the suggestions of Maureen Marcenko and Susan Kemp on an earlier draft.

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