Predictors of Child Wellbeing: The Impact of Relative Caregiver and Permanent Placement Type on Children in Foster Care

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of The Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts.

Child welfare services and the foster care system have changed in the past 30 years. A convergence of factors, such as poverty, homelessness, substance abuse, and discrimination, has placed greater numbers of families at higher risk of child abuse and neglect than in the past. To best serve the children in their care, child welfare professionals have been exploring ways to move children out of state custody and into stable, permanent homes in a timely manner.  Legal guardianship has recently been identified as an alternative permanent placement option to support the growing numbers of kinship caregivers who are caring for children in state custody.

Using the framework of kinship and attachment theories, this research investigates differences between kinship foster caregivers and non-relative foster caregivers and examines whether child well-being differs by caregiver type and permanency placement type. In addition, child and caregiver characteristics that predict caregiver and permanency type were assessed. 

The study entailed a secondary analysis of data from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing (NSCAW), a federal dataset that is nationally representative, longitudinal, and includes data from children and families or other caregivers who are involved with the child welfare system. In addition to the full sample of children under 11 in the NSCAW dataset, the subpopulations of children age 0-10 living in out-of-home care (n=1031) and permanent placements other than reunification (n=432) were analyzed.

This analysis indicated that females were more likely to live in kinship foster care than males and minority children were less likely than Caucasian children to live in an adoptive placement. Kinship caregivers were more likely than non-relative foster caregivers to be older than 35, female, have less than a high school education, and characterize their health as less than excellent. Adoptive caregivers were more likely than subsidized guardians to be Caucasian.

The analysis of wellbeing found the odds of children in kinship foster care having severe scores on behavior and/or adaptive indices were significantly lower than for children in non-relative out-of-home placements. Also, the odds of Hispanic children having severe behavior scores were 58% lower than for Caucasian children, and the odds of female children having severe scores on adaptive skills indices were 40% lower than for their male counterparts. Young children were more likely to have severe developmental/ educational needs when compared to children age 5-10. Finally, a history of severe problems predicted current severe/clinical scores across all three domains of wellbeing.

These study results suggest the need for states to introduce policies and programs that support relative caregivers and guardians and that focus on the developmental and mental health needs of young children in foster care. Further research on the well-being of Hispanic children involved with the child welfare system and continued exploration of broad child health outcomes in temporary caregiver and placement settings is critical to ensure that children in foster care and placed into permanent homes from foster care are able to access the behavioral/emotional supports, mental health services, and developmental interventions essential to achieving true well-being.