A Foster Care Research Agenda for the '90s.

FOSTER home care; CHILD welfare; PERMANENCY planning; FOSTER children; CHILD mental health services; DYSFUNCTIONAL families; LEGAL status of children; SOCIAL work with children

The article focuses on foster care research agenda for the 1990s in the U.S. Permanency planning, multiple services used by foster children, epidemiology of foster care, bonding of children with foster parents, and mental health services are included in the research agenda. Foster care plays an important role in troubled families. Foster care research can be improved by either creating a better link necessary between clinical research and the organizational context of service delivery. Child welfare researchers have rarely focused their attention on the foster care population as the unit of analysis. A major research need is evident from current policy discussions about the increasing reliance in many states on foster care placements with relatives.