Objective-Although prior research has demonstrated that frequent placement changes can negatively impact outcomes of children in foster care, it is equally possible that a child's baseline attributes may impact both their capacity to achieve placement stability and their subsequent wellbeing. The goal of this study was to disentangle the effect of a child's baseline problems at entry into foster care on subsequent placement stability and behavioral outcomes in order to separate out the direct impact of placement stability on behavioral problems of children in foster care.Design/Methods-Using a sample of 729 children who entered continuous foster care in the National Survey of Child & Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), placement stability over the first 18 months in out-of-home placement was categorized as: early stability (permanency or stable placement within 45 days); late stability (permanency or stable placement beyond 45 days); and unstable (never achieving permanency or stability). A propensity score predicting a child's likelihood of placement instability based on their baseline attributes was divided into categories identifying each child as low, medium, or high-risk for placement instability. These risk categories were then added to a logistic regression model to examine the independent association between placement stability and behavioral well-being using the Child Behavioral Checklist (CBCL) and Temperament Scores from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth.Results-Weighted analyses revealed that half (52%) of the children achieved early stability; 19% achieved later stability; and 28% remained unstable. Early stabilizers were more likely to be young (p=0.02), have normal baseline behavior (p=0.07), have no prior history with Child Protective Services (p=0.03), and have birth parents that did not have serious mental or behavioral problems (p=0.09). After accounting for baseline attributes, stability remained an important predictor of wellbeing at 18 months. Children with unstable placements were more likely to have behavior problems

Children placed into kinship care had fewer behavioral problems 3 years after placement than children who were placed into foster care. This finding supports efforts to maximize placement of children with willing and available kin when they enter out-of-home care.

Little is known about how the challenges faced by caregivers influence the variation in social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) outcomes of youth placed in kinship versus non-relative foster care. This study examined SEB symptoms among youth in kinship and non-relative foster care settings, hypothesizing that changes in caregiver depression would modify children's change in behavior over time. Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) assessments of 199 children placed with kinship and non-relative foster care providers in a Mid-Atlantic city were conducted at time of placement and 6-12 months post-placement. Linear regression estimated CBCL change scores for youth across placement type and caregiver depression trajectories. Kinship caregivers were more likely to become depressed or remained depressed than non-relative foster caregivers. Youth in kinship care always exhibited better change in SEB outcomes than youth in non-relative foster care, but these positive outcomes were principally observed among families where caregivers demonstrated a reduction in depression over time or were never depressed. Adjusted change scores for non-relative foster care youth were always negative, with the most negative scores among youth whose caregivers became depressed over time. Caregiver well-being may modify the influence of placement setting on SEB outcomes for youth placed into out-of-home care. Findings lend to policy relevance for child welfare systems that seek kinship settings as a panacea to the challenges faced by youth, without allocating resources to address caregiver needs.