[Demographic characteristics of foster families in Germany]

Demographic characteristics of foster families in Germany Abstract. Objective: Demographic characteristics like the level of education, job position or the distribution of age in families have a significant impact on the development of children. Therefore, in the current study, we examined the commonalities and differences of foster family samples, recruited for research, with the general population. Method: The data at hand are part of the "GROW&TREAT" project that examines the development of foster children in comparison to children who live with their biological families. Results: Differences were found in comparison to the data of the German Census Bureau for the foster family sample and the biological sample for parental education, apportionment of parental employment, and familial net income. Concerning the direct sample group comparison, differences could be observed in terms of age gap between (foster) mother and child and parental education. Furthermore, the representativeness of the foster family sample was analyzed based on reports of participating youth welfare services. Conclusions: The examined sample seems to be representative for foster family samples in research contexts. The consequences of these differences on potential research results and recruitment characteristics were further discussed.