Characteristics of children in foster care, family-style group care, and residential care: A scoping review

When risky child and family circumstances cannot be resolved at home, (temporary) out-of-home placement may be an alternative strategy. To reduce the risk of breakdowns and to affect positive prognostic placement outcomes,... [ view full abstract ]

When risky child and family circumstances cannot be resolved at home, (temporary) out-of-home placement may be an alternative strategy. To reduce the risk of breakdowns and to affect positive prognostic placement outcomes, care professionals need to have information about the child, family, care history, and social-cultural characteristics at admission to out-of-home care. However, to date, information on case characteristics and, especially, similarities and differences in these characteristics across the three major types of out-of-home settings (namely foster care, family-style group care, and residential care) is largely lacking. A scoping review is used to compile and compare characteristics in school-aged children of average intelligence, and their families, at the time of their admission into foster care, family-style group care, and residential care. A scoping review technique provides a broad search strategy and ensures sufficient coverage of the available literature. To systematically report similarities and differences in characteristics at admission to one of the three main settings of out-of-home care, an adaptation of the developmental framework of Kerig, Ludlow, and Wenar (2012) is used.
Based on the 36 studies included, there is consensus that normal intelligent children in care demonstrate severe developmental and behavioral problems. However, the severeness as well as the kinds of defining characteristics differ between the three types of care considered. In addition, the review identifies several existing knowledge gaps regarding relevant risk factors.
In the oral communication, the main similarities and differences in case characteristics between children in foster care, family-style group care and residential care will be presented.