Behavior problems, foster home integration, and evidence-based behavioral interventions: What predicts adoption of foster children?
4.1. Overall design
4.1. Overall design
This study used data from an intent-to-treat pilot study of an ad-
aptation of Chamberlain's Keeping Foster Parents Trained and Sup-
ported intervention (see Price, Chamberlain, Landsverk, & Reid,
2009). The sample was drawn from a single large child welfare agen-
cy in an urban area. Children were eligible for the study if they were
(1) in a foster home that received a specialized foster care rate for
the selected child and (2) ages 4 to 12 at the time of selection. To re-
ceive a specialized foster care rate, children must have significant
documented behavioral, medical, or developmental needs. The ma-
jority of the children included had behavioral needs, and the few chil-
dren who primarily had medical or developmental needs also had
behavior problems. Although history of abuse was not measured, re-
ports from administrators and staff in the program indicated that all
of the children in the specialized foster care program had experienced
physical abuse, sexual abuse and/or neglect; all had been placed in
foster care due to a substantiated claim of abuse or neglect. No chil-
dren were excluded based on psychiatric diagnoses, and so in many
cases diagnoses other than behavioral diagnoses (e.g., oppositional
defiant disorder and conduct disorder) were the child's primary men-
tal health diagnosis.