161P
Pre-Foster Care Maltreatment Class As a Predictor of Maltreatment While in Foster Care
Purpose: Youth are commonly placed in the foster care system as a means of protection against parental maltreatment. Studies have shown, however, that foster youth may experience maltreatment perpetrated by foster caregivers after they have entered the child welfare system. In this study, we explore how maltreatment prior to foster care entry may predict experiences of neglect, physical maltreatment and sexual maltreatment while in care. We adopt a person-centered approach (latent class analysis) in an effort to capture distinct profiles of the poly-victimization of youth who participated in the 1st and 2nd waves of the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study). We then evaluate how membership in a particular maltreatment class placed certain youth at elevated risk for continued maltreatment in foster care.
Methods: Our sample includes 603 19/20-year-old current or former foster youth living in three Midwestern states. Latent class analysis (LCA) models were fit using Mplus Version 7. We used eight indicators of maltreatment included in the baseline survey to identify latent classes of maltreatment experience prior to foster care entry. Once these classes were established, we used multinomial logistic regression to predict experiences of maltreatment while in foster care from maltreatment class. Youth were considered to have been neglected, physically maltreated or sexually maltreated while in foster care if they endorsed at least one of the corresponding neglect, physical maltreatment or sexual maltreatment survey items on the 2nd wave survey. These experiences of neglect, physical maltreatment and sexual maltreatment were then each regressed on the maltreatment class variable separately.
Results: A three-class solution was selected as the best fitting model. 64.1% of the sample was placed in class 1. This class showed elevated levels of neglect and was called the “Predominant Neglect Class”. 18.1% of the sample was placed in class 2. This class showed elevated levels of sexual maltreatment and was called the “Sexual Maltreatment Class”. 17.8% of the sample was placed in class 3. This class showed elevated levels of neglect, physical maltreatment and sexual maltreatment and was called the “Multiple Maltreatment Class”. Those in the Multiple Maltreatment Class were significantly more likely than youth in the other two classes to be (1) neglected by a caregiver while in foster care (p = .025); (2) physically abused by a caregiver while in foster care (p < .01) and (3) sexually abused while in foster care (p < .01). Female youth were also marginally more likely than male youth to experience sexual abuse while in foster care. Race was included as a covariate but did not predict abuse in foster care.
Implications: The classification of maltreatment experiences provides those working in the field of child welfare with greater information about the likelihood of co-occurring maltreatment. Study findings indicate that youth experiencing poly-victimization prior to foster care entry are more likely to continue to endure maltreatment while in care and should be a target of prevention efforts.