Factors influencing decision making about placement in out of home care: Development of the Child Placement Questionnaire

Background Determining out of home placements for children is a major challenge in the Australian out of home care sector, which is under increasing pressure due to difficulties recruiting and retaining enough carers to... [ view full abstract ]

Background
Determining out of home placements for children is a major challenge in the Australian out of home care sector, which is under increasing pressure due to difficulties recruiting and retaining enough carers to support the higher numbers of children remaining in care longer. Despite these challenges and the known importance of identifying optimal placements for children, the decision making processes that lead to placement remain poorly understood. No quantitative Australian research exists that examines this decision.

Objectives
This study aimed to develop a measure based on the theory of planned behaviour in order to examine the intention of child protection practitioners about placing children in out of home care.

Method
The resulting measure, the Child Placement Questionnaire (CPQ), examines practitioner intention according to the theoretical domains of the Theory of Planned Behaviour; attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behavioural control. The CPQ was evaluated by experts and pilot tested with 53 child protection practitioners working in the Australian out of home care sector. Individual items were reviewed for their relevance, and responses to open-ended questions analysed in order to refine the measure.

Results
Responses on the pilot measure revealed strong positive intention to place children in kinship care placements, but highlighted pragmatic constraints such as limited time and resources on placing children in the intended way. Participant responses indicate partial support for the application of the Theory of Planned Behaviour to child placement decision making.

Conclusions
A brief measure has been developed to measure factors influencing child placement decisions. Further refinements to this measure, including additional exploration of the organisational and systemic context in which decisions are made, could inform modifications to national and international policy and practice that lead to improved placement outcomes for children.