Letter from the Editors
Preface
- In Between the Images: The Therapeutic Benefits of Unconscious Exposure
- A Call for the Proper Evaluation of Treatment for Co-Occuring BD and SUD
- A Meta-Analysis on Father Involvement and Early Childhood Social-Emotional Development
- Loneliness and Depression among Foster Children: The Role of Caregiver Ethnic Match
- Father Involvement in Ethnically Diverse Populations
- Book Reading Styles in Bilingual Head Start Classrooms
- Demographic and Relational Predictors of Social Self-Awareness in Urban Elementary Classrooms
- Language Attitudes of Puerto Ricans Toward English and Bilingualism
- The Stories Friends Share: Structural and Thematic Analyses
Maurice Anderson
Nearly 500,000 children are in foster care. More than 20% of them are transethnically (with ethnically dissimilar families) placed following the Multiethnic Placement Act of 1994. Many exhibit internalizing behaviors (e.g. depression, loneliness). This study investigated whether transethnic foster placement is associated with variation in mental health outcomes of foster children. It was hypothesized that, the degree of ethnic matching between foster child and caregiver, and the incidence of internalizing behaviors, would be negatively related. To test this hypothesis, a secondary analysis was conducted on a sample (N=106) of mostly African-American and Hispanic (69%) boys (N=58) and girls (N=48) between the ages of 7 and 15 (M=10.47; SD=1.89) in foster care. A continuous measure of ethnic match, Total Match Index (TMI), was created (based on ethnic self-identification, country of origin, and language), and regressed on child internalizing symptoms, controlling for several confounding covariates. TMI trended towards significant prediction of childhood depression even after controlling for potential confounds (t=-1.93; p=.06; R2=.15). Correlational analyses identified specific variables that may have moderated the influence of ethnic match on the mental health outcomes of transethnically placed foster children. Suggestions for future research and potential policy implications are discussed.