Children Discharged From Kin And Non-Kin Foster Homes: Do The Risks Of Foster Care Re-Entry Differ?

A primary goal of the child welfare system is to provide permanence and stability for children, through out-of-home care, or through reunification with their primary caregivers or kin. Extant literature illustrates that children are more likely to be reunited with their caregivers from kinship foster homes versus non-kinship foster homes. This study aims to contribute to the literature and measure the net effect of discharges from kinship foster homes versus non-kinship foster homes.

The study is unique in that it uses propensity score matching (PSM). PSM is a statistical method that uses observational data to artificially create matched samples for outcomes measurement when random assignment cannot be used. PSM, in this case, takes into account many of the selection biases that can influence child placement into kin or non-kin foster homes, allowing for a more accurate comparison of outcomes. Child-level variables examined in this analysis include age, gender, race, disability, reason for out-of-home care, year of foster care discharge, number of previous placements, length of stay in out-of-home care, location of out-of-home care (i.e., urban versus rural), and Title IV-E eligibility (proxy for parental poverty status). The research questions include whether children residing in kin foster homes versus non-kin foster homes are more likely to: 1) be reunified; 2) be adopted; 3) or remain in child welfare out-of-home care.

To examine their hypotheses the authors utilized the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) data from Illinois. Analyses include 12,088 children who resided in out-of-home care for at least one week between October 1, 2000 to September 30, 2004. The 12,088 children exited out-of-home care (either kinship or non-kinship foster homes) and entered into one of the following arrangements: 1) reunification (n=6,110); 2) adoption (n=4,752); or 3) guardianship (n=1,226).

Analyses with the PSM method revealed that the kin and non-kin groups had an equal likelihood of re-entry into out-of-home care. The authors suggest that there may be selection biases that differentiate the type of children who are accepted into kin foster placements versus non-kin foster placements.