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Foster Care Continued..

In spite of the importance of including children's voices, their relative absence from the literature is not surprising. Administrative, political, legal, and pragmatic barriers all conspire to limit researchers' access to and contact with foster children. Three of the most challenging issues are recruitment of the study sample, development of the study instrument, and selection and training of interviewers.

While parents normally have authority over their children's participation in research, the legal status of children changes considerably when they reside in out-of-home care. Under these circumstances, biological parents, foster parents, social workers, social service agency administrators, lawyers, and judges all may exert influence on children's activities. Access to children may be tightly controlled, foster parents may be suspicious of researcher motives, and incentives may be required for busy caregivers, as much as for the children in their care.

It is therefore important for researchers to determine sample recruitment methods through collaboration with the social service agency. Unlike research with children in schools, hospitals, recreation centers, or other settings; access to children in foster care is hampered by their dispersion in homes throughout a county, or across counties, or even states. Public child welfare officials closely guard children's names and other identifying characteristics. It is only with great difficulty that researchers can gain the confidence of agency administrators and the consent from legal officials to release this information for sampling purposes. In addition, foster parents' names and addresses also are tightly controlled. Unless they have given advance permission, public officials are wary of providing caregivers' names and contact information.

It is equally important for researchers to determine who is the "parent." Foster children's biological parents may or may not be notified about their child's participation in a research study, and they may or may not be asked for consent. Because the legal authority for children in foster care is transferred to the court, parents are no longer legally obliged or, in some cases, even allowed to consent to their children's participation. Instead, researchers must gain informed consent from social service agencies and judges. In some cases, they may also need to gain informed consent from children's lawyers, biological parents, and caregivers.

Thirdly, researchers must determine whether children are old enough to consent. Children generally do not give consent for their participation in research. Nevertheless, children should be given as much information as possible about the research before an interview begins. The purpose for the study can be described in child-friendly terms, and their assent can be obtained verbally or in written form. Children should be empowered to understand their right not to participate at all, to terminate the interview at any time, or to "pass" on any questions they wish.

Finally, researchers must expect and manage caregiver suspicion. Foster children's personal and family histories may have left painful emotional scars. Caregivers responsible for protecting vulnerable children are appropriately suspicious of strangers who wish to query youngsters about foster care. On the one hand, it is rather remarkable that any caregivers consent to their child's participation in face-to-face interviews; on the other, their suspicions can lead to considerable selection bias in the final sample. When researchers assume that suspicion is both appropriate and healthy, their interactions with caregivers are likely to be more fruitful.

The challenges of conducting research with foster children are formidable. Barriers to identifying a sample, gaining consent, developing population specific research questions, managing highly emotional topics, and preparing staff for the work can hijack the research enterprise at every turn. It is critical to work collaboratively with social service agencies and the courts to overcome some of these obstacles. Researchers who have close working relationships will likely be more successful than others. Experience also suggests that this research will continue to be implemented only sporadically and will depend heavily upon individual judges and the unique circumstances of particular jurisdictions.

Excerpted from Jill Duerr Berrick, Karie Frasch, and Adair Fox (2000), "Assessing Children's Experiences of Out-of-Home Care: Methodological Challenges and Opportunities," Social Work Research 24(20). Jill Duerr Berrick, Professor, School of Social Welfare. Karie Frasch, Research Associate, Center for Child and Youth Policy. Adair Fox, private therapist.