Foster home integration as a temporal indicator of relational well-being

Abstract

This study sought to identify factors that contribute to the relational well-being of youth in substitute care. Using data from the [BLIND] study, youth responded to a 9-item measure of positive home integration, a scale designed to assess the relational experiences of youth to their caregivers and their integration into the foster home. Data were collected from youth in six month intervals, for an 18-month period of time. Latent growth curve modeling procedures were employed to determine if child, family, and case characteristics influenced youth’s home integration trajectories. Results suggest stability in youth reports of home integration over time; however, children who were older at the time of study enrollment and youth who experienced placement changes during the period of observation experienced decreased home integration during the 18-month period. Results suggest youth’s perspectives of home integration may in part be a function of the child’s developmental stage and their experiences with foster care placement instability. Implications for practice and future research are discussed.

Variation in Evidence-Based Practices Among Youth-Serving Residential Treatment Facilities

“…There may be challenges with engaging separated parents, managing staff attitudes toward parents, and educating parents about RT (Kim et al, 2016). Other obstacles that can make family engagement challenging include child welfare contact, long lengths of stay (McWey et al, 2015; Waid et al, 2017), and disconnection between families and providers (Gopalan et al, 2010). Methods of family engagement include partnering with families in creating treatment plans, frequent communication about the child’s progress, making meetings convenient, focusing on family-related issues, organizing support groups, and (re) building relationships among family members (Kruzich et al, 2003; Robst et al, 2014).…”