As child welfare agencies confront limited resources and increasing demands for demonstrating positive results from expenditures, growing attention has been directed to the potential benefits of training programs for foster parents. A number of such programs have been designed and tried by child welfare agencies, and numerous claims have been made regarding the purported beneficial effects and positive consequences of training programs for foster care. However, few empirical studies have been reported that support these claims. This article summarizes what has been found in the few controlled studies of the effects of foster parent training and reports on an evaluative research project that examined one such program. Implications of the limited knowledge m this area are then examined.

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