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A third of children who are returned to their families after being placed in foster care are abused again, according to a new study.

Canadian researchers analyzed data collected in 2008 and 2009 by the province's 16 youth protection centers to see why some children given back to their biological family returned back to the system.

The latest study involved 4,120 children between the ages of 0 and 17. Researchers found that 33 percent of these children later required further assistance from youth protection services, and the researchers found that two factors were particularly influential as to whether or not a child would fall into this category. 

Age significantly influenced whether children would return to the system, according to researchers.

"Children aged three to five were most at risk of being abused or neglected again. This is due to their vulnerability and the constant care that they need," researcher Marie-Andrée Poirier of the University of Montreal's School of Social Services, said in a news release.

The second most influential factor was the number of attempts children have had to go through to be reunited with their biological family.

"It's not instability with regards to the foster families with whom the child has been that plays a role, but rather the back-and-forth between the biological family and other settings. We believe that young children are more sensitive to the outcomes of failures to reunite the biological family and that this has an effect on their sense of attachment," Poirier explained.

"The 'Life Plan' was introduced out of consideration for the family ties and long-term wellbeing of children in foster care," Poirer said. "Before these changes were introduced, the system observed a worrying number of toing and froing. Today, the law requires that a permanent life plan must be arranged for the child within a set period - within 12 months if they're younger than 2,18 months for 2 to 5 year olds, and two years after that."

"Since the law was changed, fostering is indeed less frequent and the children are more often placed with a member of their extended family or a third party who is significant to them," Hélie explained. "We wanted to check if the characteristics of a foster care placement had an influence on the likelihood of further victimization of the child," she concluded.

The findings were published November in the journal Children and Youth Services Review.