Foster Parents’ Parenting and the Social-Emotional Development and Adaptive Functioning of Children in Foster Care: A PRISMA-Guided Literature Review and Meta-Analysis

Children in foster care (CFC) are at increased risk for negative developmental outcomes. Given the potential influence of foster parents’ parenting on the development of CFC, this literature review and meta-analysis provide an initial overview of how parenting factors in foster families relate to CFC’s developmental outcomes. We aimed to explore (1) whether foster parents’ parenting conceptualizations are related differently to various CFC developmental outcome variables and (2) how characteristics of foster parents and CFC moderate these associations. Following the recommendations of the PRISMA statement, we searched four databases in 2017 (with an update in May 2020). Forty-three primary studies were coded manually. The interrater agreement was 92.1%. Parenting variables were specified as parenting behavior, style, and goals and were distinguished further into functional and dysfunctional parenting. CFC development was divided into adaptive (including cognitive) development and maladaptive development. Meta-analyses could be performed for foster parenting behavior and developmental outcomes, as well as for functional parenting goals and maladaptive socioemotional outcomes in CFC. Associations between functional parenting behavior and adaptive child development were positive and negative for maladaptive child development, respectively. For dysfunctional, parenting effects were in the opposite direction. All effects were small to moderate. Similar results were found descriptively in the associations of parenting style and child developmental outcomes. We found similar effect sizes and directions of the associations between parenting behavior in foster families and the child’s developmental outcomes as those previously reported for biological families. These findings provide strong support for the significant role of parenting in foster families regarding children’s development in foster care.