Child-Maltreatment-Research-L (CMRL) List Serve

Message ID: 9239

Date: 2012-07-18

Author:Claudette Grinnell-Davis

Subject:Re: Literature Review on Foster Parent Role in Placement Stability

Perhaps as a point of clarification in helping to point toward literatures you could clarify what "successful" stability and being a "successful" foster parent entails here. I can personally think of six or seven different benchmarks of "success" off the top of my head, but aren't sure which you're looking for. It seems that in this case you're looking for non-disrupted placements and the ability to keep children despite challenges for a duration of a long-term placement... am I right? Or is there something else you're interested in? -- Claudette L. Grinnell-Davis, MTS, MSW, PhD Candidate Joint Program in Social Work and Social Science (Psychology) University of Michigan 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 clynngd@umich.edu 616.893.6845 (cell) On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Cronbaugh, Kari > wrote: Hello. I am conducting a literature review on the role of foster parents in foster care placement stability, specifically, the practice of evaluating this role and utilizing the information to inform stability practice. I have already completed a literature review on placement stability and placement matching. The current review takes this a step further in looking at how foster parents can be assessed/evaluated in the matching process. What I am hoping to find is a practice/tool/assessment that evaluates a foster parents ability to foster successfully over the life of their foster career. One of the obvious ways to evaluate a successful foster placement is by stability or disruption, however, it seems to me that is not the entire picture and that other pieces of information could be very valuable, for instance: length of experience fostering, amount/breadth of training completed, absence of abuse/neglect concerns, etc. At this time, mostly what I have found in the empirical literature has to do with assessing potential foster parents or assessing the stability of an on-going placement. Please let me know if you are aware of any other research going on in regard to this topic or know of practices being used that appear to be promising. Thank you! Kari Cronbaugh, LMSW Sr. Research Assistant The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare 1545 Lilac Lane Lawrence KS 66044-3184 785-864-0147 (office) 913-206-4791 (cell) (Office located at 110 Watkins Home) -- Claudette L. Grinnell-Davis, MTS, MSW, PhD Candidate Joint Program in Social Work and Social Science (Psychology) University of Michigan 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 clynngd@umich.edu 616.893.6845 (cell)

Perhaps as a point of clarification in helping to point toward literatures you could clarify what "successful" stability and being a "successful" foster parent entails here. I can personally think of six or seven different benchmarks of "success" off the top of my head, but aren't sure which you're looking for. It seems that in this case you're looking for non-disrupted placements and the ability to keep children despite challenges for a duration of a long-term placement... am I right? Or is there something else you're interested in? -- Claudette L. Grinnell-Davis, MTS, MSW, PhD Candidate Joint Program in Social Work and Social Science (Psychology) University of Michigan 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 clynngdumich.edu 616.893.6845 (cell) On Tue, Jul 17, 2012 at 12:11 PM, Cronbaugh, Kari > wrote: Hello. I am conducting a literature review on the role of foster parents in foster care placement stability, specifically, the practice of evaluating this role and utilizing the information to inform stability practice. I have already completed a literature review on placement stability and placement matching. The current review takes this a step further in looking at how foster parents can be assessed/evaluated in the matching process. What I am hoping to find is a practice/tool/assessment that evaluates a foster parents ability to foster successfully over the life of their foster career. One of the obvious ways to evaluate a successful foster placement is by stability or disruption, however, it seems to me that is not the entire picture and that other pieces of information could be very valuable, for instance: length of experience fostering, amount/breadth of training completed, absence of abuse/neglect concerns, etc. At this time, mostly what I have found in the empirical literature has to do with assessing potential foster parents or assessing the stability of an on-going placement. Please let me know if you are aware of any other research going on in regard to this topic or know of practices being used that appear to be promising. Thank you! Kari Cronbaugh, LMSW Sr. Research Assistant The University of Kansas School of Social Welfare 1545 Lilac Lane Lawrence KS 66044-3184 785-864-0147 (office) 913-206-4791 (cell) (Office located at 110 Watkins Home) -- Claudette L. Grinnell-Davis, MTS, MSW, PhD Candidate Joint Program in Social Work and Social Science (Psychology) University of Michigan 1080 S. University Ave. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 clynngdumich.edu 616.893.6845 (cell)