Caregiver commitment to foster children: The role of child behavior

ObjectiveThis study aimed to examine the association between child behavior problems and caregiver commitment to their child in a group of young foster children.MethodThe sample consisted of 102 caregiver-child dyads from the greater Baltimore area. Child behavior was assessed using the Child Behavior Checklist [CBCL; Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/4–8 and 1991 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry; Achenbach, T. M. (1992). Manual for the Child Behavior Checklist/2–3 and 1992 profile. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry], and caregiver commitment was assessed using a semi-structured interview known as the “This is My Baby” Interview [Bates, B., & Dozier, M. (1998). “This Is My Baby” coding manual. Unpublished manuscript, University of Delaware, Newark]. For a sub-sample of the dyads (N = 76), we examined caregiver commitment and parent-reported child behavior at two time points in order to examine the stability of a caregiver's commitment over time and to examine the direction of the association between the two variables.ResultsOverall, caregiver reported child behavior was significantly associated with caregiver commitment. Both caregiver reported child behavior and caregiver commitment were highly stable over an 11-month period. When we examined the data over time, the effect of caregiver reported child behavior at time 1 on caregiver commitment at time 2 was not significantly larger than the effect of caregiver commitment at time 1 on caregiver reported child behavior at time 2. As a result, we were not able to determine the direction of the association between caregiver reported child behavior and caregiver commitment.ConclusionsOur results indicate that caregiver reported child behavior is significantly associated with caregiver commitment to their foster children, even after controlling for factors including age of entry into foster care and time in placement.