Olivia again noted:“It was four kids, a sibling group and we only had three foster homes for them.”Oliviaand other participants who saw sibling group placement as being obstructive of placement stability notedthat not only does separation of any sibling groups usually increase the chances of placement disruption, butseparation of larger sibling groups exponentially increases the possibility of placement disruptions among allthe siblings.Attachment/Bonding DifficultiesAnother sub-theme that emerged from participants’ discussion of factors that disrupted their own foster careplacements was participants’ difficulty in attaching to the foster parent(s) they lived with as children. Elevenparticipants indicated that a child or youth in foster care’s difficulty in trusting a foster parent led to capriciousand unstable placements. Recounting her own trust issues while in foster care, Kimberly noted:I would close down when I went to a new foster home and it would take them quite some time forme to trust them…I didn’t want to get close to them [foster parents] because I knew the moment Igot close to them I was going to be pulled away from them.Jazmine added:I think that [lack of trust] caused that rift between my foster mom. I didn’t want to get too attachedbecause anytime they [foster parents] can only be like, well I don’t want you to be here anymore.So that was my biggest fear, so I just never got too attached to people.For children and youth in foster care with whom they have worked, participants found that the child’s or youth’sinability or unwillingness to develop a close bond with the foster parent was a placement-disrupting factor.Olivia noted:“Sometimes kids push away the foster parent because they self-sabotage. They can’t toleratethe love; they can’t tolerate stability because they’ve never had that before.”Linking the child’s or youth’strust issues to the child’s or youth’s fear of being let go by the foster parent at any point, Monica explained:A lot of them [children and youth in foster care] are afraid to get close to people because it’s likewhen you live a life, or your upbringing is unstable, it’s hard to build connections because it is like,I’m afraid that if I get close to you, not soon I know I’m going to leave. So, I’ve established thatrelationship and for what?
