• DOI:10.1023/A:1009418809133
• Corpus ID: 142275181

Predictors of Placement Outcomes in Treatment Foster Care: Implications for Foster Parent Selection and Service Delivery

@article{Redding2000PredictorsOP,
  title={Predictors of Placement Outcomes in Treatment Foster Care: Implications for Foster Parent Selection and Service Delivery},
  author={Richard E. Redding and Carrie S. Fried and Preston A. Britner},
  journal={Journal of Child and Family Studies},
  year={2000},
  volume={9},
  pages={425-447}
}

• R. E. Redding, C. S. Fried, Preston A. Britner
• Published 1 December 2000
• Psychology
• Journal of Child and Family Studies

Treatment foster care (TFC) is a normalizing environment in which to treat those children whose particular needs are not addressed in traditional foster care and for whom an institutional setting is a restrictive and unnecessary alternative. However, when the foster care placements of these emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children fail, as they often do, the children are shifted from one home to another without the opportunity to experience permanence or emotional attachment, resulting in poor adjustment to foster care. Placement stability, which depends in part upon effective matching of foster children with potential foster families, is critical for achieving positive outcomes in TFC. Yet, there is a dearth of information to guide placement agencies in making decisions about matching foster children with families. Moreover, once a successful match has been made, it is equally vital that service delivery be of high quality so that permanence is maintained. We review research on the predictors of positive outcomes in foster care, focusing on studies involving emotionally or behaviorally disturbed children, and provide recommendations for selecting foster parents and for ensuring high quality foster care services and placement stability.