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The handle http://hdl.handle.net/1887/51103 holds various files of this Leiden University dissertation
Author: Goemans, A.
Title: The development of children in foster care Issue Date: 2017-06-27
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178 SUMMARY
This dissertation focuses on the development of children in family foster care and examines which characteristics related to the foster child, the foster family, and the foster SODFHPHQW DUH DVVRFLDWHG ZLWK IRVWHU FKLOGUHQ·V GHYHORSPHQW 3UHYLRXV ÀQGLQJV RQ WKH
development of children in foster care have been inconclusive and the wide range of outcomes leads to the question which conditions for foster care should be met for foster children to support their positive development. In this dissertation, we use meta-analysis and longitudinal research to provide a better insight in foster children’s development. This dissertation starts with two chapters that provide a statistical and systematic overview of the literature on foster children. The other four chapters report the results of our empirical studies on the development of children in foster care.
Foster care is the preferred out-of-home placement option. However, it is not known how the developmental outcomes of children in foster care relate to those of children in other living arrangements. Chapter 2 is a meta-analytic comparison of the developmental outcomes contrasting foster children with children from the general population and children at risk who remained at home. Results show that children in foster care lag behind children from the general population with respect to their cognitive, adaptive and behavioral functioning.
No clear differences in functioning are found between foster children and children at risk ZKR UHPDLQHG DW KRPH :H FRQFOXGH WKDW EDVHG RQ GHYHORSPHQWDO RXWFRPHV WKHUH LV QR
compelling evidence that either foster care or remaining at home should be preferred over the other. However, this should not trigger indifference with respect to placement decisions.
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support families and to prevent out-of-home placement should be further developed in order to support the professionals and ensure the safety and well-being of children. In addition, in order to disentangle the effects of being in care versus the effects of pre-existing differences, future research should overcome previous study limitations with respect to the comparability of groups. Furthermore, future research is needed to identify which children are best served by either foster care or in-home services.
Chapter 3 UHSRUWV WKH ÀQGLQJV RI IRXU PHWDDQDO\VHV UHJDUGLQJ WKH ORQJLWXGLQDO
developmental outcomes of children in foster care. It is shown that there is no overall increase or decrease in adaptive and behavioral functioning of foster children during their stay in the foster family. Moderator analyses indicate that studies with a timespan longer than one year and studies with larger sample sizes show development toward more negative adaptive functioning than studies with shorter timespans and smaller samples. The remainder of the PRGHUDWRUDQDO\VHV\LHOGQRQVLJQLÀFDQWÀQGLQJV$OWKRXJKWKLVPHDQVWKDWZHFDQQRWLGHQWLI\
characteristics that are critical with respect to foster children’s positive development, we do learn from the meta-analyses that foster care, on average, does not negatively or positively affect foster children’s developmental trajectories. Given that many children enter foster care ZLWKSUREOHPVWKLVLVDZRUU\LQJVLWXDWLRQ:HVXJJHVWWKDWURXWLQHVFUHHQLQJDQGWDUJHWHG
foster-care interventions are advisable to ensure that all children who cannot be raised by their own parents, receive the support conducive to their positive development. In addition,
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developmental chances, is recommended.
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children’s psychosocial functioning is reported in Chapter 4:HXVHGDWDRIWKHÀUVWZDYHRI
our longitudinal study and report about the extent to which three clusters of characteristics, those akin to the foster child, the foster family, and the foster placement, are related to foster FKLOGUHQ·VIXQFWLRQLQJDWWKHWLPHRIUHVHDUFK:HIRFXVRQH[WHUQDOL]LQJSUREOHPVLQWHUQDOL]LQJ
problems, and prosocial behavior. The study shows that all three clusters of foster characteristics are related to foster children’s functioning. Foster placement characteristics, in particular interventions aimed at foster children, best explain behavior problems. Children receiving interventions have more externalizing and internalizing problems than children not receiving LQWHUYHQWLRQV :H H[SODLQ WKDW LQWHUYHQWLRQV PD\ EH WDUJHWHG DW WKRVH IRVWHU FKLOGUHQ DQG
foster families who are in highest need of additional support. However, the positive relation between interventions and behavior problems may also indicate that efforts to support foster children are not timely enough and actually are started when problems have ‘gotten out of KDQG·:HWKHUHIRUHVWUHVVWKHLPSRUWDQFHRIV\VWHPDWLFVFUHHQLQJDQGPRQLWRULQJWRLGHQWLI\
problems at an early stage, to prevent problems from worsening, and to offer (preventive) support to those foster children and families who are in need of it.
In Chapter 5ZHUHSRUWWKHÀQGLQJVRIRXUWKUHHZDYHORQJLWXGLQDOVWXG\:HH[DPLQH
foster parents’ stress and foster children’s internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in a transactional framework. The interaction between parental stress and child development is likely to be one of the important processes that affect foster children’s psychosocial development.
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not vice versa. The lack of bidirectional relations is surprising given the presence of transactional UHODWLRQVLQELRORJLFDOSDUHQWFKLOGG\DGV)RVWHUSDUHQWV·VWUHVVGRHVQRWVHHPWRLQÁXHQFHWKHLU
foster children’s psychosocial development and the question is whether foster parents are, in more general terms, able to pervade their foster children’s minds and lives and whether foster FKLOGUHQDUHDEOHWREHQHÀWIURPWKHLULPSURYHGKRPHHQYLURQPHQW:HVXJJHVWWKDWIRVWHU
care professionals should make sure that in case they signal either foster children’s behavior problems or foster parents’ stress, they organize support in order to ensure the wellbeing of both foster children and foster parents.
Chapter 6 focuses on foster children’s school engagement and its predictors using a longitudinal design. Foster children are often characterized by low academic outcomes which negatively impacts their later lives, and school engagement is suggested as a key element to promote academic and educational outcomes. However, few previous studies focused on the development of school engagement in foster children and longitudinal studies are lacking.
In this study we show that characteristics related to demographics, school functioning, foster children and foster families all predict levels of school engagement of children in foster care.
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and positive expectations and suggest that professionals (i.e., teachers and foster care professionals) should collaborate to ensure that school engagement and consequently school functioning becomes part of foster children’s personal development plans.
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The last empirical chapter of this dissertation, Chapter 7, attempts to bridge the gap between the information from the previous chapters and foster care practices. The topic of screening and monitoring is an important one, and we aim to take a step toward improved screening and monitoring of foster children by reporting the psychometric properties of an H[LVWLQJPHDVXUHWKH%ULHI$VVHVVPHQW&KHFNOLVW %$& IRUVLJQDOLQJSV\FKRVRFLDOGLIÀFXOWLHV
of children and adolescents in foster care. Using the data of the third wave we conclude that WKH%$&SHUIRUPVERWKVFUHHQLQJDQGPRQLWRULQJIXQFWLRQVZHOO,WVVFUHHQLQJDFFXUDF\LQWHUQDO
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children’s development in the Netherlands.
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development, such as positive parenting, whether the foster child receives intervention, whether the foster parents think about quitting foster care, the presence of biological children of foster SDUHQWVDQGZKHWKHUSODQVIRUUHXQLÀFDWLRQDUHPDGH$OWKRXJKWKHVHFKDUDFWHULVWLFVSDUWO\
explain foster children’s development and thereby provide useful insights, they cannot explain the total variance in foster children’s development. It is both this lack of an accurate model for foster children’s development and the heterogeneity of developmental trajectories that OHQG VLJQLÀFDQFH WR VFUHHQLQJ DQG PRQLWRULQJ RI IRVWHU FKLOGUHQ·V GHYHORSPHQW :H DGYLVH
foster care agencies to systematically implement screening and monitoring measures in order WRFDSWXUHIRVWHUFKLOGUHQ·VGHYHORSPHQWDOGLYHUVLW\7KLVHQDEOHVWLPHO\LGHQWLÀFDWLRQRIWKRVH
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developmental trajectories and breakdown. Researchers and foster care professionals should establish collaborations in order to improve the validity as well as the feasibility of screening and monitoring children in foster care.
