Contact with mothers for children in out-of-home-care: Group-based trajectory modelling from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study (POCLS)

Background: Good quality contact with birth parents is considered important to successful out-of-home care (OOHC) placements. Objective: There is, however, an absence of empirical evidence about contact needs of children in the OOHC system and how these needs change over time. Participants and setting: The current analysis analyzed four waves of data from the Pathways of Care Longitudinal Study in Australia relating to 1507 children on yearly frequency of contact with mothers, relationship quality with mothers, and the extent that contact met the needs of the child. Methods: Group-based trajectory modelling was used to examine in what ways frequency of contact, child-mother relationships and child's needs for maintaining family contact were associated over time. Results: The analysis showed a positive association between these three outcomes that also held true as the children aged, with five distinct patterns: (1) low frequency and poor relationship (low poor) (14.5 % of the sample); (2) moderate frequency and poor relationship (moderate poor) (30.3 %); (3) increasing frequency and improving relationship (improving) (19.8 %); (4) declining frequency and declining relationship (declining) (19.5 %); and (5) high frequency, good relationship (high good) (15.9 %). Care type, child demographics, child socioemotional wellbeing and unsupervised contact arrangements were significantly associated with trajectory group membership. Conclusions: These results can be used to inform policy and practice around contact and to better match the heterogenous contact needs for children in OOHC.