Foster care placement instability: A meta-analytic review

Abstract

Foster care is the preferred type of out-of-home placement for children and youth when they are not able to live with their own parents. However, placement instability, and its effect on children's behavioral well-being, remains a major issue in foster care. Ten multilevel meta-analyses were performed to examine factors that can affect instability of foster care placement. We included 42 studies (published between 1990 and 2017) examining putative factors associated with placement instability, which yielded 293 effect sizes. Indications of publication bias were found, but the trim and fill procedure confirmed the main findings. Medium significant effects were found for child behavioral problems (r = 0.35), (non-)kinship care (r = 0.31), and quality parenting (r = 0.29). Smaller effects were found for age of the child (r = 0.25), placement with(out) siblings (r = 0.16), and history of maltreatment of the child before placement (r = 0.14). The effects were generally modest, but showed generalizability across continents and time. The findings can be used to improve interventions for the prevention of placement instability in foster care, and further investigations. 50%) experience a premature ending of their stay (e.g., Farmer,

Sex differences in psychological distress, behavioural and emotional problems, and substance use in young people in out‐of‐home care

“…As noted earlier, sex differences were found with respect to placement instability in the previous year, with girls more likely to have experienced three or more placements. This finding deviates from a recent meta‐analysis of 42 papers that indicated that placement instability was unrelated to sex (Konijn et al, ). They reported that placement instability was related to the older age, the young person's behaviour problems, placement in nonkinship care, and history of maltreatment (Konijn et al, ).…”

“…It remains unclear as to whether improving mental health and wellbeing of these young people improves relationships with carers and thus promotes placement security. Case workers can help minimize placement instability by ensuring appropriate matching of the young person to the carer, screening the young people for behavioural issues and stress, upskilling foster carers on how to manage such issues, providing ongoing monitoring of placement outcomes, and implementing interventions to minimize problems in a placement (Konijn et al, ). If there is early termination of a placement, the case worker should provide adequate support for the young person and carer to manage that transition (Zeijlmans, López, Grietens, & Knorth, ).…”

“…Placement instability could be a target of intervention and policy development. Placement instability is a driver of poor mental health outcomes in young people from OoHC (Stein & Dumaret, 2011 (Konijn et al, 2019). If there is early termination of a placement, the case worker should provide adequate support for the young person and carer to manage that transition (Zeijlmans, López, Grietens, & Knorth, 2018).…”

Foster Parent Stress as Key Factor Relating to Foster Children’s Mental Health: A 1-Year Prospective Longitudinal Study

“…The aim of this study was to examine change in foster children's mental health over time and how this change depends on characteristics related to the foster child, the child's care experiences, foster family, and foster placement. Foster children's mental health is an important predictor of foster placement success (Konijn et al 2019). We found that levels of mental health were stable over time, meaning that, on average, there were no increasing or decreasing trends in prosocial, internalizing, and externalizing behaviors during the one year study period.…”

“…To optimize foster children's development, we need to know more about the characteristics that predict to foster children's positive developmental outcomes. Our focus is on foster children's mental health, because it is an important indicator of the quality of foster children's developmental trajectories and after care outcomes (Dixon 2008;Konijn et al 2019;Oosterman et al 2007).…”