Purpose. Most children in foster care are placed with foster families. However, there is a chronic shortage of foster family placements, and available placements are underutilized. Research and practice suggest that foster parents with more social support might be more inclined to undertake the challenges of fostering. Numerous measures of social support exist, but none exist to assess help with fostering. This presentation will report results concerning the psychometric properties of the Help with Fostering Inventory (HFI).

Methods. Licensed foster mothers (N = 304) from 35 states were recruited from foster parent associations and completed the HFI as part of a larger study of foster families.

The HFI has 27 items rated on a 4-point scale ranging from no help (0) to a lot of help (3). The validity of the HFI was examined in relation to five indicators of availability to foster: number of years fostered; number of children licensed to foster; and intention to continue fostering over the next six months, one year, and three years. It also was examined in relation to four indicators of utilization: number of children fostered; number of foster children adopted; number of foster children removed at mothers' request; and number of foster children currently in home.

Results. An exploratory factor analysis (unweighted least squares with promax rotation) indicated three clear subscales. These subscales measure anticipated help from: worship groups (4 items, a = .92); extended kin (4 items, a = .70); and professionals (11 items, a = .81).

Validity hypotheses were tested by regressing each indicator of availability and utilization on the set of three HFI subscales. Logistic regression was used for intention to continue fostering because the dependent variables were dichotomous. Poisson or negative binomial regression (depending on the presence of overdispersion) was used in the remaining analyses because the dependent variables were counts.

One or more of the HFI subscales predicted: number of years fostered; number of children licensed to foster; intention to continue fostering for all three time periods; number of children fostered; and number of foster children adopted. Anticipated help from professionals was the most consistent predictor of greater availability and utilization. None of the subscales predicted the number of foster children removed at mothers' request or the number of foster children in home.

Implications. Anticipated help with fostering, as measured using the HFI, predicts important behavioral outcomes. A reliable, valid, and practical measure of parental help with fostering would be useful for social work practice and research. This measure could be used in practice to help prospective foster parents evaluate their social support networks and inform foster care workers about the types of supportive relationships that should be developed or strengthened. Such a measure could be used in research to examine the role of parental help with fostering in the well-being and functioning of foster families, parents, and children, including the extent to which parental help with fostering influences the availability and utilization of foster family placements.