Placement Stability and the Psychosocial Well-Being of Children in Foster Care

Abstract

This article assesses one of the key assumptions underlying the philosophy of permanency planning—that placement instability adversely affects the psychosocial development of children in foster care. Method: The placement movements and psychosocial well-being of foster care were assessed over an 8-month period. Results: Most of the children who remained in care throughout the period could be assigned to one of three groups: 1 (stable throughout), 2 (unstable throughout), 3 (initially unstable, then stable) Results for these 120 children were generally consistent with a linear trend toward improvement in Groups 1 and 2, whereas Group 3 children displayed improvement only while their placements were unstable. Conclusions: Although results for Group 3 permit more than one interpretation, results for Group 2 suggest that placement instability up to at least the 8-month point is not necessarily damaging to the child.

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