Children's adjustment over time in foster care: Cross-informant agreement,stability and placement disruption

This paper reports on part of a prospective study of all children entering new planned long-term foster placements in Northern Ireland within a seven month period. This part of the study charted the competencies and behaviour of the children (N = 19) over time in the home and school environments. Th is paper aims to specifically examine three questions. First, the extent, i f any, of cross-informant agreement in ratings between foster mothers, fost er fathers and teachers. Secondly, the stability of rated adjustment over t ime. Finally, the relationship, if any, between rated adjustment early in p lacement and placement outcome by the two-year point. Foster mothers and fo ster fathers completed the Achenbach Child Behaviour Checklist in relation to the foster children, and teachers completed the companion Teacher's Repo rt Form in relation to both the foster children and their classroom peers. All the adult informants completed the tests at four months and again at on e year into placement. Findings from this small intensive study indicate st rong agreement between foster mothers and foster fathers but not between fo ster carers and teachers. Stability of rated adjustment over time was found with all informants. There was some evidence that foster carers' ratings o f the children's externalizing behaviour at four months predicted placement outcome at two years. Limitations of the small sample size are considered. Suggestions for further research are made.