Boarder babies: Permanency planning and discharge status. A one year follow-up study of 100 infants placed in foster care, 1987-1988
Abstract
In the mid 1980s, the problem of hospital boarder children, who are medically ready for discharge but cannot return home, emerged again in New York City. This is the first empirical study of boarder children after they leave hospitals and are place in foster care. The placement histories of 100 boarder babies who entered foster care in 1987 were followed for one year after placement. Data were abstracted from the records of a voluntary agency operating an emergency boarder baby program. Eighty-two percent of the placements were related to parental drug use, and 20% of the mothers were homeless. At intake, the whereabouts of 19% of the mothers was unknown, and the whereabouts of 44% were unknown at the end of one year. Forty-five percent of the children were out of care by the end of the study year: 5% were reunited with natural parents, 20% were placed with relatives, and 20% were placed with adoptive or pre-adoptive parents. Bivariate and multivariate (discriminant function) analyses were performed, with child-out-of-care and child-in-care being the two outcome variables. Four variables distinguished between the two groups: (1) residence of the mother at child's intake, (2) whether a sibling had ever been in care, (3) whether intensive family work services had been provided, and (4) the permanency planning goal at six months. The discriminant function results correctly classified 70% of the cases. The implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for policy, practice, and research are offered.
Subject Area
Social work
Recommended Citation
Petro, Barbara Joan, "Boarder babies: Permanency planning and discharge status. A one year follow-up study of 100 infants placed in foster care, 1987-1988" (1989). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI9015950.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI9015950
