Research on placement moves: Seeking the perspective of foster children

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the perspectives through which research findings about placement moves in foster care are communicated in the published literature. More specifically, the logic of standpoint theory is used to explore the extent to which foster children are included as data sources in a sample of 43 research studies investigating placement moves. The findings revealed that case record data, which does not reliably represent the viewpoint of any professional or client group within the system of care, was used in the majority of studies. The number of studies using data provided by foster children is small. Overall, the body of research on placement moves is fragmented by inconsistent use of terminology and operational definitions. Foster children are a marginalized group when it comes to research and empirical knowledge building efforts focused on understanding moves from one placement to another in the system of care. Implications for research and policy are discussed.