Assessing Foster/ Adoptive Caregiver Perceived Readiness to Care for Youth Who Identify As LGBTQ+

Background and Purpose: Youth who identify as LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and/or queer/questioning) are overrepresented in the foster care system. Relatedly, many state and local child welfare systems struggle to meet the needs of these youth due to discrimination and lack of acceptance from a variety of entities including caregivers, caseworkers, and government and agency policies. More research on effective practices and assessment tools are needed to mitigate these challenges. This presentation aims to share information about the psychometric properties of an instrument developed for assessing foster/ adoptive caregiver perceived readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth. It also aims to assess whether other caregiver qualities and characteristics indicating more general readiness to foster/ adopt are associated with readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth.

Methods: Data used in the current study were collected as part of a larger evaluation of a foster/ adoptive caregiver training curriculum. Analysis includes data from 2,284 participants from six states and one tribal community in the United States. Data were collected via an online survey between 2020 and 2022. The original 6 items included in the LGBTQ+ readiness scale were developed by the research team, and were informed using a combination of practice experience and the scientific literature on acceptance. In addition, 14 additional pre-established measures assessing readiness to foster/ adopt were assessed for their association with readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth, including the Trauma-Informed Parenting Scale, Cultural Receptivity Scale, Available Time Scale, and Family Environment Scale, among others.

Results: Examinations of internal reliability found that the 6-item scale had strong reliability (α=0.891), but was slightly improved by leaving one item out (α=0.893); thus, the final recommended scale has five items. Regarding associations between readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth and other indicators of readiness to foster/ adopt, 12 of the 14 indicators had statistically significant, positive associations. Those included trauma-informed parenting, cultural receptivity, family functioning, and available time to put toward caregiving, among others. Effect sizes were mostly small, but approached medium with two indicators, cultural receptivity and potential to care for children considered challenging.

Conclusions and Implications: The readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth scale is a new tool that can be used to help ensure that caregivers are prepared for their role to foster or adopt youth with diverse sexual orientation and gender identities. This is one contribution to an area of practice that is still in great need of increased understanding about how to best meet youths’ needs. In addition, it is hoped that knowledge about other caregiver readiness factors associated with caregivers’ readiness to care for LGBTQ+ youth will provide helpful insights into other trainable factors that may possibly bolster an accepting and supportive environment.