Placement disruption in foster care: Children's behavior, foster parent support, and parenting experiences

The majority of children in foster care 24 months or longer experience three or more placements. Children's behavior problems are a primary contributor to multiple moves, but little is known about how behavior problems and other stressors lead to disruptions. This study focused on foster parents' experiences of parenting a child at risk for moves using the determinants of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) to identify potential correlates of difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.

To identify factors associated with difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.

Foster parents (N = 139) caring for children age 8-14 in long term foster care with a history of two or more moves were randomly selected in a large Midwestern state in the U.S.

Participants completed a 90-minute telephone interview (86% response rate). Placement moves were tracked prospectively for two years. Parenting experiences and disruption were analyzed using multiple and logistic regression.

Results support aspects of the determinants of parenting model. Behavior problems, children's risk to others, low support, and stress were significantly associated with more difficult parenting experiences (βs = .28, .22, .18, .19, respectively, ps < .05), and more difficult parenting experiences strongly predicted placement disruption (p < .01). Risk to others also predicted disruption before including parenting experiences, with this association becoming nonsignificant after including parenting experiences. Unexpectedly, African American foster parents had a higher risk for disruption, despite more positive parenting experiences.

These findings support attending to foster parents' parenting experiences, children's risk to others, social support and stress to better support placements of children at risk for disruption.