Identifying Divergent Foster Care Careers for Danish Children

TY - JOUR

T1 - Identifying Divergent Foster Care Careers for Danish Children

AU - Fallesen, Peter

PY - 2014/11/1

Y1 - 2014/11/1

N2 - Foster care children who experience placement disruption and foster care instability are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, yet little work considers what these unstable foster care careers look like or what causes them. In this article, I start by using previous studies on foster care drift, instability, and placement disruptions to define the unstable foster care career as a subset of foster care careers. I then use administrative data on 30,239 Danish children born 1982-1987 who entered foster care to generate nine foster care careers, two of which meet the criteria for an unstable career. Children with a high number of risk factors associated with foster care entry were also the most likely to enter an unstable career. I end by discussing implications for recent studies of the effect of foster care on children’s later life outcomes and the relevance of the findings for practitioners.

AB - Foster care children who experience placement disruption and foster care instability are at elevated risk for a host of poor outcomes, yet little work considers what these unstable foster care careers look like or what causes them. In this article, I start by using previous studies on foster care drift, instability, and placement disruptions to define the unstable foster care career as a subset of foster care careers. I then use administrative data on 30,239 Danish children born 1982-1987 who entered foster care to generate nine foster care careers, two of which meet the criteria for an unstable career. Children with a high number of risk factors associated with foster care entry were also the most likely to enter an unstable career. I end by discussing implications for recent studies of the effect of foster care on children’s later life outcomes and the relevance of the findings for practitioners.

KW - Faculty of Social Sciences

KW - administrative data

KW - foster care

KW - instability

KW - Sequence Analysis

U2 - 10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.08.004

DO - 10.1016/j.chiabu.2014.08.004

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 25176507

SN - 0145-2134

VL - 38

SP - 1860

EP - 1871

JO - Child Abuse & Neglect

JF - Child Abuse & Neglect

IS - 11

ER -