IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v90y2018icp118-133.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Psychosocial factors and behavioral health outcomes among children in Foster and Kinship care: A systematic review

Author

Listed:
  • Washington, Tyreasa
  • Wrenn, Ashley
  • Kaye, Hannah
  • Priester, Mary Ann
  • Colombo, Gia
  • Carter, Kevin
  • Shadreck, Itumeleng
  • Hargett, Brenden A.
  • Williams, Jeffrey A.
  • Coakley, Tanya

Abstract

National data indicate recent increases in the number of children in foster and kinship care placements. Children in out-of-home placements are at elevated risk for behavioral problems, often stemming from maltreatment or trauma exposure before placement. Behavioral problems are associated with placement disruptions, delinquency, and substance use; long-term data show children with histories of foster and kinship care disproportionately experience these negative outcomes. Thus, research is needed to identify factors that can be targeted in prevention and intervention efforts to improve behavioral health outcomes among this vulnerable population. To fill this knowledge gap, we conducted a systematic review with the aim of developing a better understanding of the psychosocial factors associated with the behavioral health of children in foster and kinship care. Guided by the PRISMA protocol for systematic reviews, we identified relevant literature through searches of 3 electronic databases: Social Work Abstracts, Social Service Abstracts, and PsycINFO. Criteria for review inclusion were study samples of children in foster or kinship care; studies published between 2010 and 2016; and study focus on behavioral health outcomes, with psychosocial factors as the predictor variables. Studies were evaluated for risk of bias. The final sample included 40 studies, from which we identified almost 50 psychosocial factors associated with the behavioral health of children in foster and kinship care, including the most frequently examined psychosocial factors of caregivers' parenting practices and placement type. Additionally, we found positive psychosocial factors (e.g., positive parenting practices; healthy family functioning) predicted fewer behavioral problems. Practitioners should consider placement types and parenting interventions as a means to reduce problem behaviors. Given the substantial number of racial/ethnic minority samples in the reviewed literature, future research should focus on the direct and indirect influences of race/ethnicity and cultural competencies on children's behavioral health outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Washington, Tyreasa & Wrenn, Ashley & Kaye, Hannah & Priester, Mary Ann & Colombo, Gia & Carter, Kevin & Shadreck, Itumeleng & Hargett, Brenden A. & Williams, Jeffrey A. & Coakley, Tanya, 2018. "Psychosocial factors and behavioral health outcomes among children in Foster and Kinship care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 90(C), pages 118-133.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:118-133
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.030
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740917307430
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2018.04.030?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Quinn, Adam & Briggs, Harold E. & Miller, Keva M. & Orellana, E. Roberto, 2014. "Social and familial determinants of health: Mediating effects of caregiver mental and physical health on children's mental health," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 163-169.
    2. Dubowitz, Howard & Feigelman, Susan & Harrington, Donna & Starr, Raymond & Zuravin, Susan & Sawyer, Richard, 1994. "Children in kinship care: How do they fare?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 85-106.
    3. Leathers, Sonya J. & Spielfogel, Jill E. & McMeel, Lorri S. & Atkins, Marc S., 2011. "Use of a parent management training intervention with urban foster parents: A pilot study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1270-1279, July.
    4. Dunleavy, Alison M. & Leon, Scott C., 2011. "Predictors for resolution of antisocial behavior among foster care youth receiving community-based services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2347-2354.
    5. Anderson, Maurice & Linares, L. Oriana, 2012. "The role of cultural dissimilarity factors on child adjustment following foster placement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 597-601.
    6. Fisher, Philip A. & Kim, Hyoun K. & Pears, Katherine C., 2009. "Effects of Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers (MTFC-P) on reducing permanent placement failures among children with placement instability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 541-546, May.
    7. McWey, Lenore M. & Acock, Alan & Porter, Breanne E., 2010. "The impact of continued contact with biological parents upon the mental health of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1338-1345, October.
    8. Keller, Thomas E. & Wetherbee, Kathleen & Le Prohn, Nicole S. & Payne, Vincent & Sim, Kelly & Lamont, Elena R., 2001. "Competencies and problem behaviors of children in family foster care: variations by kinship placement status and race," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 23(12), pages 915-940, December.
    9. Greeno, Elizabeth J. & Uretsky, Mathew C. & Lee, Bethany R. & Moore, Jessica E. & Barth, Richard P. & Shaw, Terry V., 2016. "Replication of the KEEP foster and kinship parent training program for youth with externalizing behaviors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 75-82.
    10. Pears, Katherine C. & Kim, Hyoun K. & Fisher, Philip A., 2016. "Decreasing risk factors for later alcohol use and antisocial behaviors in children in foster care by increasing early promotive factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 65(C), pages 156-165.
    11. Haight, Wendy & Black, James & Sheridan, Kathryn, 2010. "A mental health intervention for rural, foster children from methamphetamine-involved families: Experimental assessment with qualitative elaboration," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1446-1457, October.
    12. Price, Joseph M. & Roesch, Scott C. & Walsh, Natalia Escobar, 2012. "Effectiveness of the KEEP foster parent intervention during an implementation trial," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2487-2494.
    13. David Moher & Alessandro Liberati & Jennifer Tetzlaff & Douglas G Altman & The PRISMA Group, 2009. "Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses: The PRISMA Statement," PLOS Medicine, Public Library of Science, vol. 6(7), pages 1-6, July.
    14. Washington, Tyreasa & Cryer-Coupet, Qiana R. & Coakley, Tanya M. & Labban, Jeffery & Gleeson, James P. & Shears, Jeffery, 2014. "Examining maternal and paternal involvement as promotive factors of competence in African American children in informal kinship care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 9-15.
    15. Hegar, Rebecca L. & Rosenthal, James A., 2011. "Foster children placed with or separated from siblings: Outcomes based on a national sample," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1245-1253, July.
    16. Jewell, Jeremy D. & Brown, Danice L. & Smith, Gail & Thompson, Ronald, 2010. "Examining the influence of caregiver ethnicity on youth placed in out of home care: Ethnicity matters - for some," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1278-1284, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Wilson, Brendan & Barnett, Lisa M., 2020. "Physical activity interventions to improve the health of children and adolescents in out of home care – A systematic review of the literature," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Kelley, Susan J. & Whitley, Deborah M. & Lamis, Dorian A., 2023. "An intervention to improve the well-being of families in which African American grandmothers are raising grandchildren: A longitudinal mediation analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 151(C).
    3. Jill R. McTavish & Christine McKee & Masako Tanaka & Harriet L. MacMillan, 2022. "Child Welfare Reform: A Scoping Review," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(21), pages 1-24, October.
    4. Smith, Gregory C. & Hayslip, Bert & Webster, Britney A., 2019. "Psychological difficulties among custodial grandchildren," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 104(C), pages 1-1.
    5. Rabassa, Judit & Fuentes-Peláez, Nuria, 2023. "Effectiveness of group intervention in improving kinship care families’ outcomes: A systematic review of group interventions aimed at kinship caregivers and youth in kinship care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Vanschoonlandt, Femke & Vanderfaeillie, Johan & Van Holen, Frank & De Maeyer, Skrällan & Robberechts, Marijke, 2013. "Externalizing problems in young foster children: Prevalence rates, predictors and service use," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 35(4), pages 716-724.
    2. Spielfogel, Jill E. & Leathers, Sonya J. & Christian, Errick & McMeel, Lorri S., 2011. "Parent management training, relationships with agency staff, and child mental health: Urban foster parents' perspectives," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2366-2374.
    3. Cénat, Jude Mary & McIntee, Sara-Emilie & Mukunzi, Joana N. & Noorishad, Pari-Gole, 2021. "Overrepresentation of Black children in the child welfare system: A systematic review to understand and better act," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Goodman, Catherine Chase & Potts, Marilyn & Pasztor, Eileen Mayers & Scorzo, Dolores, 2004. "Grandmothers as kinship caregivers: private arrangements compared to public child welfare oversight," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 287-305, March.
    5. Sheridan, Kathryn & Haight, Wendy L. & Cleeland, Leah, 2011. "The role of grandparents in preventing aggressive and other externalizing behavior problems in children from rural, methamphetamine-involved families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1583-1591, September.
    6. Rip, Jet & Zijlstra, Elianne & Post, Wendy & Kalverboer, Margrite & Knorth, Erik J., 2020. "Cultural matching factors, child factors and fostering factors associated with successful foster placement: An explorative study into the perspectives of unaccompanied refugee children, their foster c," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    7. Greeno, Elizabeth J. & Uretsky, Mathew C. & Lee, Bethany R. & Moore, Jessica E. & Barth, Richard P. & Shaw, Terry V., 2016. "Replication of the KEEP foster and kinship parent training program for youth with externalizing behaviors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 75-82.
    8. Perry, Kristin J. & Price, Joseph M., 2018. "Concurrent child history and contextual predictors of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 125-136.
    9. Luu, Betty & Collings, Susan & Wright, Amy Conley, 2022. "A systematic review of common elements of practice that support reunification," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 133(C).
    10. Lee, Jane Jiyoun & Holmes, Lisa, 2021. "Longitudinal trajectories of behavioral problems among children in out-of-home care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 127(C).
    11. Goulette, Natalie W. & Evans, Sara Z. & King, Dione, 2016. "Exploring the behavior of juveniles and young adults raised by custodial grandmothers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 349-356.
    12. Wu, Qi & White, Kevin R. & Coleman, Kanisha L., 2015. "Effects of kinship care on behavioral problems by child age: A propensity score analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-8.
    13. Bernedo, Isabel M. & Salas, María D. & García-Martín, Miguel A. & Fuentes, María J., 2012. "Teacher assessment of behavior problems in foster care children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 615-621.
    14. Cuddeback, Gary S., 2004. "Kinship family foster care: a methodological and substantive synthesis of research," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 623-639, July.
    15. McBeath, Bowen & Kothari, Brianne H. & Blakeslee, Jennifer & Lamson-Siu, Emilie & Bank, Lew & Linares, L. Oriana & Waid, Jeffrey & Sorenson, Paul & Jimenez, Jessica & Pearson, Eva & Shlonsky, Aron, 2014. "Intervening to improve outcomes for siblings in foster care: Conceptual, substantive, and methodological dimensions of a prevention science framework," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 39(C), pages 1-10.
    16. Leathers, Sonya J. & Spielfogel, Jill E. & Gleeson, James P. & Rolock, Nancy, 2012. "Behavior problems, foster home integration, and evidence-based behavioral interventions: What predicts adoption of foster children?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 891-899.
    17. Lee, Linda J., 2011. "Adult visitation and permanency for children following residential treatment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(7), pages 1288-1297, July.
    18. Lin, Ching-Hsuan, 2018. "The relationships between child well-being, caregiving stress, and social engagement among informal and formal kinship care families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 203-216.
    19. Hegar, Rebecca L. & Rosenthal, James A., 2009. "Kinship care and sibling placement: Child behavior, family relationships, and school outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 670-679, June.
    20. İlkay Unay-Gailhard & Mark A. Brennen, 2022. "How digital communications contribute to shaping the career paths of youth: a review study focused on farming as a career option," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(4), pages 1491-1508, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:90:y:2018:i:c:p:118-133. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.