Effect of interventions to recruit foster parents
Mapping review
|Updated
A systematic literature search and mapping of studies on the effect of interventions to recruit and retain foster parents.
Key message
The Norwegian Directorate for Children, Youth and Family Affairs commissioned the Norwegian Knowledge Centre for the Health Services to conduct a systematic literature search and mapping of studies on the effect of interventions to recruit and retain foster parents.
Method
We designed a research strategy for a systematic literature search. The research librarian searched for all kinds of empirical studies in medical databases and databases of the social sciences. The literature search was conducted in July 2014.
Results
- We identified 4 600 references. In addition, we screened the first hits in Google/Google scholar. Among these we identified 35 as possibly relevant.
- We categorized the included references into 1) interventions to recruit and retain foster parents, 2) interventions to recruit foster parents, and 3) interventions to retain foster parents.
- We identified 2 potentially relevant references on interventions to recruit and retain foster parents, 10 potentially relevant references on recruitment of foster parents and 21 potentially relevant references on retaining foster parents.
- We have found one systematic review dealing with screening instruments to be used in the process of recruiting foster parents. The systematic review included and analysed five standardized screening instruments.
- For interventions to recruit foster parents the findings of our systematic search indicate that there are not sufficient primary studies of adequate methodological quality to conduct a systematic review.
- One possibility to follow up our report is to conduct a systematic review of primary studies dealing with the second question on interventions to retain foster parents over time.