Employment Among Current and Former Welfare Recipients: A Literature Review

ABSTRACT

The primary goal of welfare reform is to move recipients from welfare to work. Several factors influence the employment of welfare recipients. The purpose of this content analysis is to offer a comprehensive understanding of employment characteristics and important personal, family, and employment characteristics that either promote or deter employment among current and former welfare recipients. Social workers need a comprehensive understanding of these factors in order to design policy and social work interventions. This article is a content analysis of the results of empirical research studies. Implications and recommendations are offered based on the review of empirical research on current and former welfare recipients.     

Social capital, the social economy and community development

Social capital is increasingly used in the field of communitydevelopment and the social economy. This article describes someof the results to emerge from a three-year research project(CONSCISE Project), which looked at the contribution socialcapital can make to the social economy within local economicdevelopment. Following the definition of social capital, thearticle examines how it can be assessed and then goes on tolist the main findings on the significance of social capitalin the understanding of the social economy and community development.It concludes with a number of policy implications on how socialcapital can be used within the context of community development.     

Irving Crespi, 1926-2004

Irving Crespi was an influential contributor to the field ofpublic opinion research, as theorist, methodologist, practitioner,and leader of the major professional organizations. Throughhis books and articles, Crespi added to the understanding ofhow opinions are formed and changed. The Public Opinion Processexplored the dynamics of opinion formation and the     

"Our Greatest Treasure, the Child": The Politics of Child Care in Hungary, 1945-1956

This article explores child care and preschool educational policiesin Hungary from the end of World War II until the 1956 revolution,focusing mainly on the forms of organization of preschool education,methods of financing, and the quality of educational facilities.Special attention is devoted to the gender dimension of theeducational system, provisions concerning women’s employment,and women’s entitlements as mothers and caregivers. Thearticle considers preschool education as the point of collisionbetween (forced) productive and reproductive roles of womenin the socialist system. In addition to analyzing the legislationon child care, the article studies the different stages of thepolicy process, in an effort to identify how competing discourseson welfare policies by multiple actors and agencies—suchas the state, parties, local and county administrators, variousinterest groups, the women’s movement, and parents—werestrategically used in political narratives striving for dominancein the political field. It is also concerned with the implementationof these laws, and with their effect upon those directly affectedby these policies.     

Children’s consent to child welfare services: Some explorative remarks

In this article, children consenting to a care order proposal is explored as a form of meaningful participation as seen by care-experienced young people. In contrast to health care and research ethics, almost no research exists on children's consent to child welfare measures. The findings suggest that instead of approaching children as individualistic rights-holders, a more relational understanding about consenting is required, both conceptually and in practice, to acknowledge the social, emotional and power relations in which children's consent (or objection) becomes topical in child welfare. Without that recognition, consenting may be far from meaningful participation.     

Illinois's child welfare research agenda: an approach to building consensus for practice-based research

This article presents a consensus-building initiative to develop a statewide research agenda that responds to the needs of Illinois's child welfare community. Researchers conducted this process through a university-community partnership to engage those interested in child welfare services. The process and findings resulted in a living document that will guide child welfare research throughout the state. Findings of the inquiry suggest that the development of best practice models may be one of the most important contributions research can make to practice.     

Understanding the diverging paths of stayers and leavers: An examination of factors predicting worker retention

The retention of qualified, competent staff has been a longstanding challenge for child welfare agencies. Given the stressful nature of child welfare work, difficulties with recruitment and retention of staff may not be surprising. However, considering the costs of chronic turnover, efforts to increase retention are crucial. The current study utilizes a large sample (n = 1102) of Title IV-E graduates from one statewide consortium in order to explore the usefulness of a conceptual model for understanding retention and turnover of workers in public child welfare. Logistic regression models reflect that at least one variable from each of four categories (worker, job-extrinsic, job-intrinsic, responses to job) predicted retention. Implications for child welfare workforce research, agency practice, and Title IV-E MSW programs are discussed.     

Interventions for youth aging out of care: A scoping review

Youth aging out the child welfare system are being transitioned out of the child welfare system with few interventions in place to support their move to independence. In developed countries, compared to their peers, youth aging out of care face poorer outcomes when it comes to education, employment, and housing. A better understanding of the effectiveness of the existing interventions that support youth in care is warranted. This paper presents a critical scoping review of the available evidence on interventions available to youth who are aging out of the child welfare system and identifies gaps for future research. Arksey and O'Malley's framework for scoping reviews shaped the process of this review. A total of thirteen databases were searched resulting in the retrieval of 1978 articles. Of the 1978 retrieved, only 68 met the review's criteria. Studies included were in English, described an intervention that was implemented and evaluated in developed countries, and published within the last 20 years. Interventions were categorized as: housing, employment, education, mentorship, independent living, and health. The majority of studies fell under the independent living category which provide cohesive resources to improve education, housing, and employment. Studies evaluating these programs generally reported positive outcomes on youth's ability to complete their education and attain part- or full-time employment. Methods of evaluations were found to be methodologically weak with respect to determining the effectiveness of interventions in ensuring youth's successful transitions to independence. Future research should look at longitudinal outcomes of youth and cost-benefit analysis of supporting youth transitioning out of the child welfare system. Recommendations also include policy changes extending the age of eligibility for youth transitioning out of the child welfare system.     

Do welfare policies matter for immigrant entrepreneurship? An analysis in the context of France

There is little research on the relationship between welfare policies and immigrant entrepreneurship. Accordingly, this paper examines changes in three welfare domains: child-care, health/medical insurance, and unemployment insurance in the context of France since roughly the 1980s, but with a focus on the 21st century. Given changes in French welfare policy, I show that immigrants' greater access to fluctuating, sometimes declining, but overall increasing spending in the three domains, can be positively correlated with slowly increasing immigrant entrepreneurship since the early 2000s. However, I also argue that welfare policies do not seem to have a significant effect on the levels and survival of immigrant-owned firms in France. The findings of this paper should nonetheless be taken with extreme caution in light of the obstacles to analyzing this relationship. As a consequence, I provide an assessment of three possible research designs as a route towards better understanding this relationship.     

It's not as simple as it sounds: Problems and solutions in accessing and using administrative child welfare data for evaluating the impact of early childhood interventions

In recent years, there has been increasing interest in using administrative data collected by state child welfare agencies as a source of information for research and evaluation. The challenges of obtaining access to and using these data, however, have not been well documented. This study describes the processes used to access child welfare records in six different states and the approach to combining and using the information gathered to evaluate the impact of the Early Head Start program on children's involvement with the child welfare system from birth through age eleven. We provide “lessons learned” for researchers who are attempting to use this information, including being prepared for long delays in access to information, the need for deep understanding of how child welfare agencies record and code information, and for considerable data management work for translating agency records into analysis-ready datasets. While accessing and using this information is not easy, and the data have a number of limitations, we suggest that the benefits can outweigh the challenges and that these records can be a useful source of information for policy-relevant child welfare research.     

Expanding the conceptualization of re-entry: The inter-play between child welfare and juvenile services

Re-entry in child welfare is traditionally viewed as a child exiting to permanency and then reentering the child welfare system. Using this approach is effective for understanding child welfare practice from a single-system lens, but gives an incomplete picture of how children may move between related child serving systems. The present study expands the definition of re-entry by examining re-entry for 2259 children who either return to the child welfare system or move into the juvenile justice system after reunification from foster care. When measuring a broader concept of re-entry (into either system) the rate of re-entry went from 18% to 25% - a 33% increase. Regression analyses further suggested that many of the risk and protective factors associated with standard child welfare reentry were also predictive of multisystem re-entry such as having previous child welfare experience (OR = 1.79, p < 0.000), and child behavior as a factor at removal (OR = 1.75, p < 0.000). Findings of this study support the need to continue increasing the conceptualization of re-entry to be more inclusive of related systems as well as continuing to focus research efforts on understanding effective practices within child serving systems so that re-entry into either system is mitigated.     

Child Welfare Workers' Adoption of Decision Support Technology

Child welfare workers must process complex information in deciding to refer clients to appropriate mental health services. Decision support systems have been demonstrated in other fields to be an important tool, yet little research has been done in child welfare. This study focused on the adoption of a specific decision support system into child welfare practice. Quantitative analysis was used to demonstrate the diffusion of innovation process among a sample of state child welfare workers, while qualitative analysis was used to explain the facilitators and barriers to decision support systems adoption. Results indicate that for decision support systems to be widely adopted in child welfare practice, they should be integrated into the referral system and include workers' knowledge and experiences with referral resources. For successful adoption, decision support systems need to respect the natural logic and flow of worker interaction as well as organizational constraints.     

Welfare Services for Migrants Can they be better planned?

A study of the welfare responses to migrants' welfare needs in different national contexts reveals that countries vary enormously in their welfare responses. These responses reflect prevailing welfare philosophies and structures, different social stratification realities, and the varying circumstances that give rise to the particular intake of migrants. This variation may also reflect some lack of direction, or some inability to plan for the existing and discernible potential needs of particular migrant populations. The 6 levels or areas of welfare intervention appropriate to the migration-integration process are 1) immigration policies and practice (pre-migration), 2) reception-settlement policies and practice, 3) community education, 4) equality of opportunity measures, 5) community development, and 6) provision of personal welfare services. The field of immigrant welfare calls for a set of policies and programs that 1) is comprehensive, 2) is based on a clear understanding of the nature of the migration-integration process, 3) reflects an adequate understanding of the significance of culture, ethnicity, and race, and 4) is based on a framework which can ensure a rational and sensitive relationship between the various levels of development, the many programs established, and the variety of structures involved. While to achieve this goal is not easy, more can be done in most countries. Moreover, a more rational approach than currently prevails will represent, in most cases, a better use of resources, a better deal for immigrants, and a greater chance of more equitable and harmonious societies.     

Parent-child supervised visitation within child welfare and custody dispute contexts: An exploratory comparison of two distinct models of practice

This paper aims to untangle the assumptions and goals of supervised visitation services in the child welfare and custody dispute contexts, through presenting a legal analysis and review of social science literature. There is confusion in the literature on the specific roles, duties and expectations of supervised visitation services in facilitating parent-child contact within child welfare and custody disputes. A framework is outlined for understanding supervised visitation services in general. The overarching tenets of these services are discussed, and the assumptions of safety, protection and parent-child contact are explored. The legal context of supervised visitation in Canada is outlined, specifically examining the ‘best interest of the child’ principle and comparing the legal backdrop of visitation in child welfare and custody disputes. The social science literature is then reviewed with the goal of discerning supervised visitation across child welfare and custody disputes. The limited research on outcomes for children and families after utilizing supervised visitation services is discussed. This paper concludes with cautions and considerations for policy and practice for supervised visitation in child welfare and family law contexts, as well as recommendations for both fields.     

Child welfare services and delinquency: the need to know more

This article describes the need for a better understanding of the moderating effects of child welfare services on delinquency. Although juvenile delinquency is a commonly studied issue, researchers have paid little attention to the degree to which child welfare services may be associated with changes in subsequent delinquency rates. Emerging evidence suggests that for certain groups of maltreated children, such as children of color and females, certain child welfare services are associated with variations in risk of delinquent outcomes. The article discusses key methodological, theoretical, and policy implications that help guide further research in this area.     

Looking beneath and in-between the hidden surfaces: a critical review of defining,measuring and contextualizing mental health service disparities in the child welfare system

Efforts to understand and respond to racial and ethnic disparities in referrals to and use of mental health services among children involved in the child welfare system are constrained by the lack of consistency in defining and measuring disparities and the lack of clarity as to what causal mechanisms sustain patterns of disparate treatment. Recent developments in the field of public health offer some insight as to how our understanding of similar disparities in child welfare may be advanced. Despite advancements, there is still an insufficient knowledge base from which to offer an alternative definition of disparities that illuminates conceptual and methodological innovation in child welfare research. Based on a critical review of the literature, more exploratory and etiological research grounded in implementation of advanced metrics and multivariate methods is warranted to generate a clear definition. Recommendations are offered to address conceptual ambiguity.     

Disentangling substantiation: The influence of race, income, and risk on the substantiation decision in child welfare

Understanding the source of disparities found at decision-making points along the child welfare pathway is essential to understanding and addressing the overrepresentation of African American children. Although research has documented the existence of disparities, it has been less successful in identifying the explanatory factors behind them. Critiques of research examining these disparities have suggested that poverty is likely a stronger explanatory factor than race, yet analyses that include measures of poverty using data from child welfare systems have largely not been conducted. This study uses data from the Texas child welfare system to identify the factors contributing to disparities at the substantiation decision. Given the relationship between poverty and child maltreatment, the analyses control for the effect of family income, as well as other factors related to maltreatment, to better understand the effect of race on this decision-making point. Findings indicate that when family income is controlled, race is not a significant factor in the substantiation decision. However, when also controlling for caseworker perceptions of risk, race emerges as the stronger explanatory factor. This suggests not only an important relationship between race, income, and risk assessment, but also that disproportionality in the child welfare system is a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained by a single factor. These results further demonstrate that the effect of racial bias on decision-making remains an important consideration in understanding the overrepresentation of African American children.     

Community perceptions and foster care placement: A multi-level analysis

Signs of physical and social disorder in a community have the potential to influence the perceptions about community, which could, in turn, impact the decision making processes involved in child maltreatment investigations. While extant research has demonstrated a link between community context and child maltreatment rates, there is a dearth of research examining the potential relationship between social conditions in a community and the child welfare system's response to allegations of neglect. This study examined the relationship between child- and community-level characteristics and the decision to place a child in foster care. Two data sets were linked, one containing detailed observations of community conditions (e.g., cigarette and alcohol advertisements) and a second with individual child level information about child welfare investigations. Multilevel models allowed for the simultaneous understanding of child- and community-level characteristics. The results indicated strong associations between individual characteristics and foster care placement. The race or ethnicity of the child was a strong predictor of entry into foster care, and young children were much more likely to be placed in foster care than older children. Furthermore, community factors were also associated with placement into foster care. Specifically, the presence of litter and graffiti and the lack of security signage in a neighborhood appeared to impact the decision making process for foster care.     

Elevating financial capability in child welfare services: Early efforts in the Grand Challenge

The great majority of families involved in the child welfare system are economically vulnerable, have limited incomes, and face a high risk of financial exploitation. Limited opportunities to participate meaningfully in the financial sector, along with poor decision making, can lead to overwhelming debt, eviction, and poverty that compromise child safety and wellbeing and can cripple efforts to reunify families. This article discusses the need to elevate financial capability–which scholars and practitioners define as knowledge of financial matters and means to exercise that knowledge. It addresses nascent research examining financial capability and asset building, the expanding role of the topic in human services, and efforts in Missouri to integrate an understanding of financial capability in work with families involved in the child welfare system. Such integration holds the promise of fulfilling the safety, permanence, and wellbeing goals of the child welfare system; involving a wider set of community partners; and achieving the federally mandated ‘normalcy’ in foster care.     

Empowering Domestic Discretionary Spending in Federal Budget Deliberations

Abstract

Federal domestic discretionary spending (DDS) funds a large portion of human services in the American welfare state including mental health, child welfare, childcare, public health, job training, and education programs. Yet relatively little research has been conducted on this small but important part of the federal budget. This article examines a number of factors that have limited the size of DDS and that may imperil its existence in coming decades. The article suggests that policy theorists and researchers need to devote more attention to DDS and that policy advocates need to develop effective strategies for protecting DDS from unwarranted assaults in the budget-making process.