Parental and familial characteristics of family foster care applicants

Foster family applicants form the pool from which caregivers are selected for 75% of the 568 000 children in foster care. We know little about these applicants along dimensions thought to influence the behavioral and emotional adjustment of foster children. This limits our understanding of how best to recruit, assess, train, and support these applicants. This study examined the psychosocial functioning of 161 family foster care applicants in terms of parenting, family functioning, marital quality, psychological problems, and social support. It also examined demographic characteristics. The majority of men and women had one or more problems in psychosocial functioning, but most only had one or two problems. However, approximately 17% of women and 24% of men had three or more problems. Considerable diversity existed in demographic characteristics. Implications of these results for the recruitment, assessment, training, and support of foster family applicants are discussed.