Predictors of Placement Moves Among Children With and Without Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

Children identified as having emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) may have different out-of-home care placements than their peers without EBD.This study compared the factors influencing placement movements for 362 children with EBD and 363 children without EBD, using clinical Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores at baseline data collection of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. The analyses explored potential case characteristics influencing the number of placements for children with a clinical CBCL score at baseline data collection. Poisson regression models were used to explain the number of placements experienced during the first 36 months of placement. Overall, children with a clinical-level CBCL score were 2.5 times as likely to experience four or more placements as their nonclinical peers. Findings indicated that the presence of depression and not residing with siblings predicted movement among children with EBD. Among children without EBD, only older age was strongly associated with placement moves. Although the direction of effects is equivocal, these results call for greater attention to children's experience of out-of-home placement and the lack of homogeneity among children who are placed outside their homes.