Examining Predictors of Healthy Functioning for Foster Families: Implications for Strengths-Based Practice

Background/Purpose: Foster parents provide safe and stable homes for children and youth who are removed from their home of origin due to maltreatment. In the U.S. foster parents care for almost half of the more than 400,000 children placed in out-of-home care (DHHS, 2015). The availability and stability of foster placements depends on the recruitment and retention of foster families. Many families report challenges associated with systemic issues, secondary trauma, and balancing the increasing needs of children in their care. Unfortunately, many foster families discontinue fostering within one year of opening their license (Gibbs, 2005). However, there are families who maintain healthy family functioning and continue fostering for many years. There is a need to both recruit and retain foster parents to meet the needs of the growing number of children in care. This study sought to understand the factors that predicted higher levels of family functioning within foster families.

Methods: Collaborating with the state child welfare agency, all licensed foster parents with a current email address in one southwestern state (N = 1864) were sent an online survey. Participants were asked to respond to a scale measuring strengths, a risk scale, and the Family Assessment Device (FAD; Epstein, Baldwin, & Bishop, 1983). A hierarchical linear regression was used to understand the association between the strengths and risks and functioning on the FAD.

Results: A 36.5% response rate was achieved (n = 681). Findings from the regression analysis indicated that risk was negatively associated (β = -.11) with family functioning, signifying that the more risks identified by a family, the lower the score on the FAD; however risk only accounted for 3% of the variance in FAD scores (R² = .03). Family strengths was positively associated (β = .67), indicating that the more strengths a family reported, the healthier their family functioning was. Adding strengths to the model accounted for 47% of the variance in FAD scores (R² = .47).

To further understand the association between FAD scores and strengths, a correlation analysis was used to identify the strengths that had the largest effect size (r ≥ .5) with FAD scores. These were: being able to talk out difficult circumstances; taking charge when there is a problem; being light-hearted and laughing together, having creative ways to deal with problems; feeling good about the future of the family; and believing that the family can learn and grow through the difficulties.

Conclusions and Implications: Foster parents are integral to ensuring stability and the opportunity for healthy development for children and youth involved in the child welfare system. They care for vulnerable children despite the inherent challenges they may encounter.  Understanding which strengths have a greater effect on family functioning provides direction for targeted support for existing foster families to help in keeping their homes open and in recruitment efforts for new foster parents. Findings from this study can inform strengths-based training for new and existing foster families to strengthen families and improve the well-being of children and youth in their care.