Unsubstantiated bias toward foster care versus group home placements for wards of the state.

Abstract

High number of placements for children in U.S. DHHS custody has led to class action lawsuits around the country. The current study proposes that social stigmatization effects in the form of family ideology drive foster home favorability over group home placements. Fifty-four students completed an Implicit Association Test, Go/No-Go Association Task, and self-report assessing associations of foster home and group home stimuli to either good or bad stimuli using three dependent measures: sensitivity (d'), hit RTs, and false alarms. Results revealed participants were more sensitive, faster, and had fewer erroneous responses when foster was paired with good or when group was paired with bad. Results supported hypothesis of a positive bias towards foster homes and a negative group home bias.