Predicting Maltreatment in Foster Homes: The Role of Child Welfare Agency Policies

Although maltreatment of children living in substitute care has significant negative consequences for both the children who experience it and for child welfare agencies, research examining this outcome is underdeveloped and has focused on a limited number of risk factors. Using administrative data from one Midwestern state and a social ecological framework, the current study examined the impact of multiple child, caseworker, case, and agency-level factors on the occurrence of maltreatment among children placed in foster homes. The results highlighted the importance of several agency-level factors. Foster home licensing was a significant predictor of substantiated maltreatment in substitute care, with children in unlicensed kinship and unlicensed fictive kinship foster homes at elevated risk of maltreatment compared to those in licensed placements. A majority of kinship and fictive kinship homes were unlicensed, which suggests that increasing licensure may improve child safety in substitute care. Other factors that increased the risk of maltreatment included larger caseworker caseloads, larger number of unrelated children in the foster home, and child mental health needs.