Friday, 14 January 2005 - 2:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Foster Care

A Study of the Relationship between Foster Parent Characteristics and Experiences and Subsequent Adoption/Guardianship Conversion

Purpose: To explore the relationship between the characteristics and experiences of foster parents -- including the nature and duration of their caregiving experiences and the qualities of their communities -- and the likelihood that they adopt or assume guardianship of a child in their care.

Method: Administrative data from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services regarding all placements in relative and non-relative family-foster homes in Illinois between 1997 and 2003 were matched with census records, foster parent background check data, and federal employment records. The data describe the fostering experiences of over 50,000 foster homes who, in aggregate, cared for approximately 65,000 children.

Results: During the study period, slightly less than 20% of all foster homes adopted or assumed guardianship of one or more children, representing approximately 10,000 adoptions and 4,000 subsidized guardianships. Multivariate analyses, which included techniques for modeling the duration of repeatedly-occurring events, were performed with respect to both outcomes. Results indicate that, in addition to the established effects of child and case characteristics, foster parent characteristics (e.g. demographics, family composition, etc.) were highly predictive of subsequent adoptive/guardianship conversion. Foster homes' caregiving experiences (e.g. number of previous children cared for, fostering tenure, etc. ) also appeared to be significantly related to conversion, although the effect of some indicators (e.g. tenure) were not substantial. Finally, although the relationships between some community characteristics (e.g. proportion of married or multiparous families) and conversion were significant, this was not the case for others (e.g. economic and housing conditions)

Implications: Results suggest, quite simply, that different foster homes, under different circumstances, will make different decisions vis-a-vis adoption and guardianship. This finding, although somewhat intuitive, has important practice and policy implications for public child welfare and adoption generally. Most directly, it suggests that more timely permanence can be achieved for hard to place children by more accurately discriminating between the adoption/guardianship preferences of different foster homes -- that is to say, through a better understanding of "which homes from which communities adopt which children." Also, this finding suggests that, through a more nuanced understanding of the relationship between foster parent characteristics and experiences and foster parent decision-making, child welfare and adoption agencies could (a) increase the success of placements generally through selective matching of children to providers and informed metering of foster home utilization and (b) better target foster and adoptive parent recruitment efforts.

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