Recruitment and Retention in a Parenting Intervention: A Case Study with Parents Aging Out of the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

Parenting interventions are efficacious in reducing child maltreatment and negative child behaviors, yet the recruitment and retention of parents, especially vulnerable parents, in such interventions can be challenging. Prior research identifies several ways to improve recruitment and retention including laying the foundation for the intervention, fostering relationships with parents, ensuring fit of the intervention with the intended population, and identifying barriers to parents’ participation. This case study presents a process of recruiting and retaining a vulnerable group of parents, specifically parenting youth aging out of the child welfare system. In addition to outlining the strategies used, lessons learned are highlighted. Parents expressed interest in the parenting intervention, experienced significant needs, negotiated great instability in their lives, and valued the social connections facilitated by the group intervention. Despite the research team following best practices and investing significant time and resources, recruitment and retention remained challenging. Implications for future work in this area are presented.     

Predictors of attachment styles of children in foster care: an attachment theory model for working with families

The purpose of this study was to examine the attachment styles of children in foster care and to use this information to inform clinical practice (N = 110). When examining the relationship between attachment style and child characteristics, no significant differences were found. A structural equation model hypothesizing the relation of individual characteristics, losses, and family contact to avoidant attachment was then tested. Results provided tentative support for the hypothesized model. Implications for therapists include being attentive to attachment injuries, and working to create safe therapeutic environments when working with families involved in the foster care system.     

Avant-Garde Militarism and a Post-Hip-Hop President

Feminist global politics scholars have long investigated militarized masculinities to demonstrate the toxic and mutually constitutive relationship between war, militarism and masculinity. This article investigates this relationship in the political sphere by analysing the embodiment, performance and construction of presidential masculinities. In particular, I compare and contrast the presidential masculinities of George W. Bush and Barack Obama. Through a multimodal discursive analysis of online presidential photo galleries, I demonstrate that Obama has recast US presidential and African American masculinities in contradictory but significant ways. I argue that Obama constructs and performs a hybrid presidential masculinity that is contemporary, demilitarized and characterized by a post-hip-hop ghetto-style cool. This presidential masculinity and the avant-garde militarism that accompanies it stands in stark contrast to Bush and cleverly camouflages, even reinvigorates, ongoing US militarism across the globe. After all, Obama further institutionalized the ‘War on Terror’, but has a Nobel Peace Prize amongst his accolades. Throughout, I elucidate the concept of presidential masculinities, noting their relationship to hegemonic masculinities. I conclude that Obama's hybrid presidential masculinity may very well be a more sophisticated deployment and embodiment of US hegemonic masculinity in the twenty-first century.     

Sibling relationships and internalizing symptoms of youth in foster care

Compared to the sibling literature of the general population, little is known about sibling relationships of youth in foster care. The current study aimed to report on sibling relationships among youth in foster care, and investigate the potential protective nature of sibling relationships of those who have experienced trauma on the expression of internalizing symptoms among a nationally representative sample of 152 adolescents in foster care. Results indicated that the large majority of the sample was currently separated from their sibling. Of those who were not living with their sibling, nearly three quarters saw their sibling monthly or less frequently with one third of the sample reporting never having any contact with their sibling. In addition, bootstrapping methods were used to determine if sibling relationships mediated the effect of trauma on internalizing symptoms. Results indicated that a positive sibling relationship significantly mediated this relationship. Implications of these findings are discussed.     

Action-oriented evaluation of an in-home family therapy program for families at risk for foster care placement

The purpose of this study was to conduct an action-oriented evaluation of an in-home family therapy program serving families deemed at risk for the placement of children in foster care. In this study, feedback was solicited from both clients and therapists. Results indicate "duality" associated with several aspects of in-home family therapy, including the opportunity to observe families in their own homes versus the vulnerability some families feel when therapy is conducted in-home; therapists suggesting that sufficient training is required for in-home family therapy to be effective versus clients' opinions that therapists' lived experiences are more relevant; and the importance of the therapeutic alliance versus feelings of abandonment upon termination. Implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.