Parent–Child Contact for Youth in Foster Care: Research to Inform Practice

• Author: Ming Cui,Lenore M. McWey
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12276
• Published date: 01 October 2017
• Date: 01 October 2017

L M. MW  M C Florida State University

Parent–Child Contact for Youth in Foster Care:

Research to Inform Practice

Objective: The purpose of this study was to

document how often youth in foster care have

contact with their legal parents, test factors

associated with the amount of contact, and

determine if contact was associated with rela-

tionships with caregivers and youth mental

health symptoms.

Background: Because parental reunication is

the case plan goal for most youth in foster care,

it is important to maintain contact with par-

ents. Federal policy emphasizes the importance

of parent–child contact for youth in foster care;

however, little is known about how often visita-

tion actually occurs.

Method: This study involved a nationally repre-

sentative study of youth aged 6 to 17 years in the

child welfare system (N=452). Youth reported

their amount of contact with parents, and levels

of emotional security and involvement with cur-

rent caregivers. Caregivers completed the Child

Behavior Checklist. Multinomial logistic regres-

sion and analyses of covariance were conducted

to determine linkages associated with parental

contact, relationships with caregivers, and youth

mental health.

Results: Most youth had at least weekly contact

with mothers; however, more than half reported

never having contact with fathers. Youths’ age,

race, type of maltreatment, and placement were

associated with how often contact occurred.

Department of Family and Child Sciences, 210 Sandals

Building, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL 32306-

1491 (lmcwey@fsu.edu).

Key Words: Child welfare, foster care, mental health,

visitation.

Findings also revealed statistically lower inter-

nalizing, externalizing, and total behavior prob-

lems of youth who had daily contact with

mothers compared with youth with no contact.

Conclusion: When parent–child contact is

safely possible, more frequent contact with

mothers is associated with benecial youth

outcomes.

Implications: Applying a translational family

science approach, implications for engaging

mothers and fathers in visitation are discussed.

There are more than 400,000 children in foster

care at any given time (U.S. Department of

Health and Human Services, 2015), and reuni-

cation with their parents is the primary case

plan goal for the majority of these youth (U.S.

Department of Health and Human Services,

2014). Once a child is removed from the home,

contact with his or her legal (e.g., biological

or adoptive) parents is important for maintain-

ing the parent–child relationship (Mallon &

Leashore, 2002; McWey & Mullis, 2004). In

fact, federal policy (Adoption Assistance and

Child Welfare Act of 1980) requires provi-

sions be made to support visitation between

parents and children (Haight, Kagle, & Black,

2003). However, there are common concerns

about visitation, including beliefs that visits

with parents may be emotionally distressing

for children (Moyers, Farmer, & Lipscombe,

2006) and cause youth to act out emotionally

and behaviorally (Browne & Moloney, 2002;

Fanshel, Finch, & Grundy, 1990). Indeed,

although federal policy emphasizes the impor-

tance of maintaining contact with the legal

684 Family Relations 66 (October 2017): 684–695

DOI:10.1111/fare.12276