Factors Influencing the Prospect of Children Returning to Their Parents from Out-of-Home Care

Abstract

The findings of a study of 877 children placed in residential care in Hong Kong highlight the paramount importance of parental involvement in the child's prospect of returning home, and challenge decisions in discharge planning that do not take into account an overall view of the needs of the child concerned. In Hong Kong, few children are placed in residential care--institutional or noninstitutional--for family-related reasons. Their number approximates only 0.11% of the population age 18 or below. This relatively judicious use of the service, as compared to its use in the West, may be due to the cultural emphases of the Chinese on family solidarity and self-reliance, which have been upheld in present-day Hong Kong Lau 1982; Chow 1987; Lee 1991 , and which contribute to a general reluctance of people to be dependent on welfare. Most parents strive to bring up their children themselves, and will resort to residential child care only when the family and its support network have proved incapable of providing care and no alternative is in sight. Once a child is admitted into care, however, she or he may expect a rather long stay and perhaps several placement changes Tam & Ho 1993 . This apparent contradiction is worth looking into to identify the factors influencing the prospect of these children being reunited with their parents. A considerable amount of research pertaining to placement outcomes has been conducted in the United States and the United Kingdom over the past three decades. The research findings suggest that the likelihood of a child's return to his or her own home is related to four different sets of variables: intake characteristics, duration in care, service strategies, and the extent of parental contact with the agency and the child while the child is in care. Studies of intake characteristics and placement outcomes indicate that those children who are likely to return home tend to be those who were admitted because of a family crisis such as the death, illness, or hospitalization of a parent; and those who came from large families where there were affectionate relationships with siblings and where parent-child relationships were maintained Fanshel & Maas 1962; Parker 1966; Jenkins 1967; Vernon & Fruin 1986 . By contrast, lengthy stays in care were associated with the following factors: familial conditions such as marital conflict, psychosocial problems of parents (including incompetence, alcoholism, and drug addiction), or desertion or separation of the mother from the husband or child prior to placement; children who were functioning at a below-average intellectual level, had permanent physical disabilities or serious emotional or personality problems, or who were suffering from tenuous or warped parent-child relationships perhaps owing to physical abuse and neglect; and adverse factors such as inadequate housing and the economic circumstances of the family Fanshel & Maas 1962; Parker 1966; Jenkins 1967; Murphy 1968; Maas 1969; Rowe & Lambert 1973; Sherman et al. 1973; Vernon & Fruin 1986 . In addition, demographic variables such as religion, ethnicity, age at placement, and mother's age at the time of placement were related to duration of care Parker 1966; Jenkins 1967; Murphy 1968 . Parker 1966 found that children placed in a family foster home for the first time were more likely to return to their home. More recent research also found that the rate of leaving care decreased as duration in care lengthened Stein & Gambrill 1971; Stein et al. 1978; Vernon & Fruin 1986 . Service strategies were found to be related to placement outcomes. Sherman et al. 1973 showed that intensive service strategies were more likely to facilitate the child's return home than regular practice. The Alameda Project revealed that if family problems were successfully resolved, the majority of children could be reunited with their parents Stein & Gambrill 1971; Stein et al. …