The Relationship of Welfare Receipt to Child Outcomes

Welfare receipt often is correlated negatively with children's cognitive and behavioral outcomes. Yet, virtually all children in households that receive public assistance are poor, prompting the question of whether poor outcomes are an effect of welfare, a spurious relationship between welfare and child outcomes, or a result of welfare selection. Using the NLSY-CS, these possibilities are examined by controlling for poverty and for selection into welfare. Controlling for child and maternal characteristics accounts for the majority of bivariate associations between welfare and outcomes among Black children. Controlling for poverty does little to change the relationship between welfare and outcomes for Black or White children. Controlling for selection into welfare further reduces the relationship between welfare receipt and outcomes among White children and has little discernible effect among Black children.     

When Children Have Two Fathers: Effects of Relationships With Stepfathers and Noncustodial Fathers on Adolescent Outcomes

Using data on 189 adolescents who have a living biological father and a resident stepfather, we examined the effects of children's relationships with both fathers on child outcomes. Interview data from mothers and stepfathers provide an assessment of two types of child outcomes, internalizing and externalizing problems. Interviews with the children themselves provide data about the child's relationships with the mother, stepfather, and biological father. Results show a significant positive association between quality of relationship with stepfathers and child outcomes. Relationships with noncustodial fathers have less consistent but appear to have positive effects on child outcomes. We find that many children have good relationships with both fathers and that, even controlling for quality of relationship with the mother, good relationships with both fathers are associated with better child outcomes.     

How distance to a non-resident parent relates to child outcomes

Family courts now encourage both parents to maintain contact with their children following separation/divorce, believing this is in the child’s best interest. We use geographical distance between non-resident parents and their children to test how such distance is related to educational and behavioral outcomes within a population sample of children from nonnuclear families in Denmark. As this distance is a choice, non-resident parents may choose where to live in part based on expected child outcomes; results that fail to take endogeneity into account will be biased. We use instrumental variable techniques to control for this potential endogeneity. The results indicate educational outcomes are somewhat better for all and behavioral outcomes are at least no worse for girls who live at a greater distance from their non-resident parent. Failing to control for endogeneity seems to bias the results for behavioral outcomes in favor of more proximate parents. Thus, policy efforts to keep separated parents geographically closer for the sake of their children may in fact not be advantageous.     

Social reactions to child sexual abuse disclosures: a critical review

Recent studies have examined disclosure of child sexual abuse to determine the correlates and consequences of telling others about this form of victimization. The present article reviews the current empirical literature on disclosure and reactions to adult survivors to assess what is known about the process of disclosure and whether telling others is therapeutic and leads to positive outcomes. Most studies assessing social reactions in detail have concerned adult survivors retrospectively reporting on their disclosures of child sexual abuse. Few empirical studies have been conducted in this area but research suggests that few victims tell anyone about child sexual abuse as children, and that the type of reactions to disclosure vary according to when disclosure occurs (childhood or adulthood), the extent and nature of the disclosure, and the person to whom one discloses. Clear evidence shows that negative social reactions are harmful to survivors' well-being, but better assessment of specific reactions and their effects are needed in theoretically-based studies to evaluate how these responses affect survivors' recovery in the context of other variables. Suggestions for future research on social reactions of others to adult survivors disclosing child sexual abuse are presented.     

Does mother know best? Parental discrepancies in assessing child behavioral and educational outcomes

We investigate the degree of correspondence between parents’ reports on child behavioral and educational outcomes using wave four of a rich Danish longitudinal survey of children (the DALSC). All outcomes are measured at age 11 when the children are expected to be in fifth grade. Once discrepancies are detected, we analyze whether they are driven by noisy evaluations or by systematic bias, focusing on the role of parental characteristics and response heterogeneity. We then explicitly assess the relative importance of the mother’s versus the father’s assessments in explaining child academic performance and diagnosed mental health to investigate whether one parent is systematically a better informant of their child’s outcomes than the other. Our results show that parental psychopathology, measured as maternal distress, is a source of systematic misreporting of child functioning, that the parent–child relationship matters, and that mothers are not necessarily a better informant of child functioning than fathers. This last finding should not only be valid for Denmark but also for many other countries, where the father’s role in childcare has been growing.     

Unequal opportunities among unequal states: The importance of examining state characteristics in making social welfare policies regarding children

This paper examines the disparate social well-being outcomes children experience across states in the United States. The paper seeks to extend the study of child social well-being by examining the extent to which state characteristics influence aggregate child social well-being outcomes. The results indicate that socioeconomic and population characteristics of states influence the magnitude of aggregate child social well-being deficits. It is argued that the disparities in child social well-being outcomes for children across states should be taken into consideration in the current welfare reform climate. Because states have gained greater control over programs that assist the poorest and most vulnerable families and children, states with large child social well-being deficits will likely experience even larger deficits as many state TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families) policies and practices do not adequately support poor families.     

Achieving Permanence in Foster Care for Young Children: A Comparison of Kinship and Non-Kinship Placements

ABSTRACT

A number of child welfare policies have reinforced the use of kinship care as the most preferred placement for foster children, reflecting the philosophy that maintaining children within their own extended family system contributes to their stability and well-being. Given the growing utilization and legislative emphasis on kinship care along with the push for an immediate implementation of permanency plans for children in foster care, this study examines how the permanency goal under the 1997 Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) is being implemented and achieved. The reunification and permanency placement (adoption or legal guardianship) outcomes of children in relative and non-relative care are analyzed, focusing on the experiences of young children. Based on public child welfare agency data from 2000 to 2003, child, case, and placement variables are explored to identify which set of factors best explains case outcomes. The present study identifies the total length of foster placement (kinship and non-kinship), the length of family maintenance services, and the number of placement changes as the most important variables in determining family reunification and permanent placement (legal guardianship and adoption) outcomes for young children.     

Investigating Family Shared Realities With Factor Mixture Modeling

The authors introduce factor mixture modeling (FMM) and its implications for assessing varying degrees of shared reality in families. FMM extends the typical factor analytic model that uses a set of observed indicators to identify an unobservable factor and its structure. FMM examines the possibility a sample is a mixture of “classes,” each with unique factor structures. To demonstrate, varying factor structures of father involvement are identified using father, mother, and child reports as observed indicators. Three classes were identified and relate to varying degrees of shared reality regarding the father. Predictors and outcomes of these classes are modeled. The class in which the child's view most overlapped with his or her parents' view was predicted by higher child agreeableness and higher levels of maternal depressive symptoms. As hypothesized, membership in this class predicted lower levels of parental conflict and fewer parental attempts to involve their children in their conflicts.     

The confrontation clause and the child victim of sexual abuse

Courtroom proceedings for child sexual abuse often represent a morass of conflicting rights and counterproductive justice. Within this article, conflicting rights of adults and children regarding courtroom testimony are explored with an interest in assessing the effects of testifying for children and addressing the process of making children's testimonies less traumatic and more credible.     

An uncertain future: children of mentally ill parents.

Research reports the uncertain outcome of variables affecting the life of a child of an MI parent. Nurses must avoid stereotyping children before assessment; they are to be in the forefront in assessing self-care skills and deficits to guide planning individual interventions for children and MI parents. Long-term research theory-based interventions will enhance mental health in high-risk children and families.     

The "quality " of early care and education settings: definitional and measurement issues

There is a widespread belief that high-quality early care and education can improve children's school readiness. However, debate continues about the essential elements of a high-quality experience, about whether quality means the same things across different types of care settings, about how to measure quality, and about the level of quality that might make a meaningful difference in outcomes for children. Are the aspects of the child care environment that researchers measure the ones that are most strongly related to children's development? This article argues that the ways in which researchers currently measure early care environments are flawed and that the conclusions drawn about the relationship between these measures and outcomes for children are frequently incorrect or overstated. The article addresses four questions: How is the quality of the child care environment commonly defined and measured? Do the most commonly used measures capture the child's experience? Do they work well across all settings? Are researchers drawing the correct conclusions from studies that relate the child care environment to child outcomes? Finally, the article discusses some possible directions for future research.     

The role of grandparenting in early childcare and child outcomes

This paper examines the short and medium term impact of early childcare provision by grandparents and formal care settings on child cognitive outcomes, using data from the Millennium Cohort Study (UK). Compared with children placed in formal childcare, children cared for by their grandparents are better at naming objects, but perform worse on tests of basic concept development and non-verbal reasoning. These results mask strong heterogeneities. On the one hand, the positive association between grandparental care and child outcomes is stronger for children from more advantaged households; on the other, the negative association is only significant for those from more disadvantaged households. The results of OLS estimations used for our analysis are confirmed using panel methods and an instrumental variable approach.     

Desired Outcomes for Children and Adolescents with Autistic Spectrum Disorders

Within children's services, frameworks for assessing outcomes have been developed in the absence of consultation with children with autistic spectrum disorders and their parents. The research reported here worked with parents, other key adults and children with autistic spectrum disorders to identify desired outcomes. It found similarities with non‐autistic children in terms of the broad types of outcomes desired. However, the presence of autism meant either new or different sorts of outcomes were reported. Implications in terms of the ways outcomes for autistic children are defined and measured, and the role of services in achieving outcomes is discussed. © 2006 The Author(s).     

Beyond averages: Child well-being in Kazakhstan

With the majority of poor people now living in middle-income countries and the post-millennium development goals framework taking shape, the issue of inequality has gained prominence in many policy debates. Although detailed assessments of poverty and well-being are crucial for formulating adequate policies, all too often such assessments focus on average outcomes. In this paper we present an analysis of child well-being for Kazakhstan that moves beyond averages in two ways: first, it explicitly reports on the situations of different socioeconomic groups of children in society; second, it applies a method that is diversified by age group and thereby accounts for differences among children across stages of childhood. Kazakhstan illustrates the need for more nuanced and in-depth analyses, given the significant but far from universal economic growth within the country. We find that there are large discrepancies in child well-being outcomes between different regions and that high levels of economic output do not necessarily go hand in hand with improved outcomes in terms of poverty and well-being. We argue that child well-being studies need to be more in depth, thereby ensuring that levels of inequity across socioeconomic groups and between children in different age groups are given due consideration.     

Making visits better: the perspectives of parents,foster parents,and child welfare workers

Mothers of children recently placed in foster care, foster mothers, and child welfare workers participated in semistructured, clinical interviews focusing on the challenges of parent visitation with young children. Mothers described their feelings of grief, trauma, and rage about the forced separation from their children and stressed the importance of emotional expression and communication during visits. Child welfare workers described the complexities of supporting emotionally close parent-child interactions while monitoring and assessing parental behavior during visits. Foster mothers described the importance of preparing children for visits and the difficulties of supporting the children afterward. Implications of understanding mothers', foster mothers', and child welfare workers' perspectives on enhancing the quality of visits with young children are discussed.     

Expectations,education, and opportunity

Using a long panel of youths, we establish a causal link between parental expectations regarding education and educational attainment. In particular, we use an instrumental variables approach to find that the child’s chances of obtaining a high school or college degree are increasing in the parent’s expectations of the likelihood of these events. We then use differences between the objective likelihood of a child’s educational attainment and the parents’ subjective probabilities to consider the hypothesis that lower educational outcomes among certain groups are driven by a “culture of despair,” where children are low-achieving because they are expected to underachieve. While we do find that children from households with lower levels of income, wealth, and parental education are less likely to attain high school and college degrees, we reject the hypothesis that this is driven by low subjective expectations of educational success. Rather, we find that parents from disadvantaged groups have expectations for the educational outcomes of their children that differ more from the statistical likelihood of these outcomes than do parents of children from advantaged households. That is, we find that parents in more disadvantaged households are more optimistic about the educational outcomes of their children than those from more advantaged households.     

Critical factors of intensive family work connected with positive outcomes for child welfare clients

Mechanisms producing positive change in troubled families were analysed. The study aimed to answer the questions: What kind of case and client outcomes does intensive family work (IFW) produce for child welfare clients? From the perspective of family workers, what kind of critical factors for positive child, parent and family outcomes can be identified? The study used child welfare case files of 35 families with 93 children from one social office and interviews with 20 family workers and IFW managers in 5 municipalities in Finland. The shades of worries scale was used in evaluating the change in each family's situation. The case outcome measures for children included changes in the child's status in open care, short-term placement or foster care. During IFW, positive changes took place in 23 families out of 35 (66%). Twenty-seven children from 16 families did not continue as child welfare clients. Eleven children were placed into foster care during IFW and two years after it. The critical processes for outcomes included time, trust building and engagement, practical help, facilitating communication and guaranteeing the best interest of the child. IFW was considered effective for positive outcomes for the majority of families with complex needs.     

Taking action on racial disproportionality in the child welfare system

Mirroring national trends, children of color in Washington state's King County are overrepresented at every point in the child welfare system and fare worse by most measures than are Caucasian children. The King County Coalition on Racial Disproportionality was formed to reduce and ultimately eliminate racial disproportionality in the county's child welfare system. The research-based strategies implemented to address the issue focused on children in care longer than two years. They included participation in the Breakthrough Series Collaborative on Racial Disproportionality, implementation of benchmark hearings, and development of Champions for Permanence. Now in the beginning stages, perhaps the most significant success is heightened awareness within the community of the disparate outcomes for children of color in the child welfare system.     

Parental health and child behavior: evidence from parental health shocks

This study examines the importance of parental health in the development of child behavior during early childhood. Our analysis is based on child psychometric measures from a longitudinal German dataset, which tracks mothers and their newborns up to age six. We identify major changes in parental health (shocks) and control for a variety of initial characteristics of the child including prenatal conditions. The results are robust to placebo regressions of health shocks that occur after the outcomes are measured. Our findings point to negative effects of maternal health shocks on children’s emotional symptoms, conduct problems and hyperactivity. We estimate that maternal health shocks worsen outcomes by as much as 0.9 standard deviations. In contrast, paternal health seems to be less relevant to children’s behavioral skills.     

See no evil,hear no evil,speak no evil: assessing complex trauma in young children

Complex trauma generally refers to a child's exposure to multiple traumatic events often within the context of an interpersonal relationship. Childhood traumatic events are commonplace and can have significant implications for physical and mental health. However, traumatic events are often not assessed by clinicians involved in their care. This paper outlines an approach to assessing complex trauma in young children in clinical settings. This approach involves an initial interview, an assessment of traumatic events and trauma symptoms in the child, an assessment of the parent–child interaction, an understanding of the child's functioning in multiple settings, and an assessment of parental trauma where relevant. Complex trauma takes time to assess and is dependent on the parent's ability to recognise and acknowledge the effect trauma has had. The paper concludes with some of the challenges when assessing complex trauma in young children in clinical settings.