Foster care is intended to be a temporary placement option. Viewing permanency as central to child well-being, current U.S. policies aim to limit the length of time a child spends in out-of-home foster placements. There is little recent research, however, on predictors of length of time in out-of-home care. The purposes of this study were to test if more frequent contact with biological parents predicted less time in out-of-home care, and determine if more frequent contact with biological parents was associated with better mental health outcomes using three waves of data from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being II, a U.S. nationally representative dataset of youth involved with the child welfare system. Findings revealed that more frequent contact with biological mothers was associated with fewer cumulative days in out-of-home care. Among covariates, older child age was related to longer stays in out-of-home care, and Black youth experienced more cumulative days in out-of-home care compared to White youth. Links between frequency of contact and youth mental health outcomes also were tested, and more frequent contact with both mothers and fathers was associated with lower mental health symptoms. Being separated from siblings also was associated with more mental health problems, and compared with foster care, being in kinship care was negatively associated with mental health problems. A discussion of the findings in light of U.S. polices and best-practices is included.

中文翻译：

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与亲生父母的更多接触预示着儿童福利系统中青少年的家庭外护理时间和心理健康状况会更短

寄养旨在成为一种临时安置选择。美国现行政策将永久性视为儿童福祉的核心，旨在限制儿童在家庭外寄养的时间。然而，最近很少有关于户外护理时间长度预测因素的研究。这项研究的目的是测试与亲生父母的更频繁的接触是否会减少家庭外护理的时间，并利用来自国家卫生研究院的三波数据来确定与亲生父母的更频繁的接触是否与更好的心理健康结果相关。儿童和青少年福祉调查 II，美国全国代表性的参与儿童福利系统的青少年数据集。调查结果显示，与亲生母亲接触越频繁，外出护理的累计天数越少。在协变量中，年龄较大的儿童与在户外护理中停留的时间较长有关，与白人青少年相比，黑人青少年在户外护理中的累计天数更长。还测试了接触频率与青少年心理健康结果之间的联系，与母亲和父亲更频繁的接触与较低的心理健康症状相关。与兄弟姐妹分离也与更多的心理健康问题相关，与寄养相比，亲属照顾与心理健康问题呈负相关。其中包括根据美国政策和最佳实践对调查结果进行的讨论。