Does Screening of Children in Foster Care Influence Decisions in Social-Work Practice?

Purpose: This study aims to answer the question: Does the screening of well-being and learning skills using validated screening tools influence social workers’ decisions on whether to provide an intervention? Method: We answer it using logistic regression on data from a Danish intervention study of children in family foster care, Me and My Foster Family, collected via the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) and the Attentive to Learning Questionnaire (ATT: Learn), which measure children’s psychological well-being and their academic skills and learning difficulties, respectively. Results: While screening results revealing greater learning difficulties are directly associated with social workers’ decision to provide an intervention, those revealing greater problems with well-being are inversely related to the outcome. Further, boys consistently have a higher probability of receiving help than girls. Discussion: Explanations for these unexpected findings are discussed, including the higher priority given by social workers to children’s learning difficulties over their well-being.