Children Placed in Long-Term Foster Care: An Intake Profile Using the Child Behavior Checklist/4-18

Abstract

Foster-care programs are beginning to use standardized assessment methods consistently as part of pro gram and case planning, as well as for documenting the clinical status of children in care. A number o studies have now been published that describe the psychosocial functioning of children in foster care using the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). This article reports findings on intake CBCL scores for a group of children 4 to 18 years old served in long-term family foster care by The Casey Family Program an agency serving children in 13 states.These CBCL scores are compared with scores reported for other samples of children in family foster care and residential treatment. Overall rates of serious behavior prob lems for children in care are estimated from the available data.The implications of the findings for clinical and program planning and future research using the CBCL are discussed.