Abstract
Abuse in foster care is one of the reasons why children in foster care do not experience stable foster placements. Another reason for placement disruption is limited caregiver capacity to care for the children and provide permanency. These circumstances occur in nonrelated foster care as well as kinship care. While kinship care is regarded as the least restrictive placement when considering out-of-home placement for children, it is not always successful because of placement disruption. In this study, the researchers compared the biopsychosocial characteristics between successful kinship caregivers and those who had a subsequent placement disruption. If social workers are aware of the risks that predispose families to placement disruption, there can be safety plans developed to prevent disruption and strengthen families. The researchers selected 30 kinship caregiving families from Sacramento County Department of Health and Human Services who had relative foster children placed with them in 2008. There were 15 successful families selected, who either maintained children in placement until reunification with the families of origin, adopted, assumed guardianship, or demonstrated placement stability for a period of two years. The initial biopsychosocial assessments of these families were compared to 15 families who subsequently had their relative foster children removed from the home, either due to abuse or an inability to care for the children. Significant findings show that there was a correlation between successful kinship foster placements and kinship caregiver age. Interestingly, the successful kinship caregivers were older than the kinship caregivers who had a placement disruption. The older caregivers also suffered more health problems, and had more criminal convictions in the past.