Who Is Willing to Foster Children With Disabilities?

Abstract

Children with disabilities represent a significant and increasing proportion of children in foster care. In a national sample of 304 foster mothers we identified two groups of mothers, one willing to foster children with any type of disability except HIV/AIDS (51%) (Unconditional mothers), and a second group who were more selective (49%) (Selective mothers). Unconditional mothers fostered longer, fostered more children, and had more foster children in their homes.

KEYWORDS:

• foster families
• foster parents
• foster children
• disabilities

Notes

Casey Family Programs funded this work. The authors thank Cheryl Buehler, Tanya M. Coakley, Mary Ellen Cox, Gary Cuddeback, and Katie Rhodes for their extensive help in the development and implementation of the overall study of which the present study is a part. We thank the many foster parents who made this study possible.