Relationships Among Perceptions of Foster Care, Personality Traits, and Willingness to Foster

Abstract

The number of children in foster care continues to rise with 442,995 in foster care according to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) Report, (2018). Although many scholarly articles on the foster care system have been published in recent years, limited studies existing on efforts to recruit with kinship or non-related foster parents. With the number of foster children placed in non-related foster homes outnumbering those in kinship homes, the present study is designed to increase understanding of how knowledge of the foster care system, perceptions of the foster care system and foster parents, and personality traits of agreeableness, openness, and conscientiousness impacts prospective foster parents willingness to foster a non-related or kinship child. One finding from the study was that only the personality trait of Conscientiousness predicted willingness to foster a non-related child with R = .195, R2 =.038, F(1,78) =.3.068, p = .084. Another outcome of the study showed that Perceptions of the Foster Care system and the personality trait of Conscientiousness predicted willingness to foster a kinship child at R = .195, R2=.038, F(1,78) =.3.068, p = .084, and R = .187, change in R2= .035, F(1,78) = 2.834, p = .096 respectively. This is one of the first exploratory studies to contribute to the identification of personality traits or knowledge or perceptions of the foster care system with the potential to predict willingness to foster either non-related of kinship children. Future research in this area should continue in attempts to close the gaps between the number of children entering into foster care and the number of foster homes available for them.