Abstract
The aim of this research is to examine the relation between school attachment and school achievement and foster care placement.
A cross-sectional study was carried out with data from 20 340 pupils in Sweden, aged 10, 13 and 16 years, 252 of the children were placed in foster care.
Data on children's health, school attachment and school achievement were obtained from the Pupil Health Database.
The results show that school achievement was significantly poorer for children in foster care than for other children, but only when they had low school attachment. When they had high school attachment, there was no difference in school achievement between the groups. Therefore, the results of this study suggests that school attachment could modify the relation between foster care placement and school achievement. The interaction effect was statistically significant after adjusting for age and sex. By promoting school attachment for children in foster care through creating supportive relations and a friendly school environment, the school achievement can be improved.