Recommendation of placement into foster care: Associated factors
Recommending placement into foster care is one of the most difficult decisions for a child welfare worker to make. The aim of this study is to explore child, parent, family and maltreatment characteristics associated with placement recommendation in the representative sample of the Quebec youth protection agency clientele (N = 2230 children) from the Quebec Incidence Study (QIS). Logistic regression reveals 13 characteristics associated with recommending placement: three parent characteristics (inadequate parental cooperation, higher number of parental problems, presence of significant adult in child’s life other than parental figures); three family characteristics (reconstituted/single-parent family, only one child in family reported to youth protection agency and non-secure home); two child characteristics (under 2 or over 14 years of age and high number of child needs); and five maltreatment characteristics (more than one problem reported to youth protection agency, child reported abandoned, report does not involve “other” maltreatment type, high number of mental health sequelae and report by family member). The discussion focuses on the pertinence of these characteristics in clinical discussions involving the decision to place a child.