Criteria for the selection of foster families and monitoring of placements.: Comparative study of the application of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory-Applicant Version (CFAI-A)

Based on a literature review, this article frames different stages of the foster care process, identifying a set of standardized measures in the American and Portuguese contexts which, if implemented, could contribute towards higher levels of foster success. The article continues with the presentation of a comparative study, based on the application of the Casey Foster Applicant Inventory-Applicant Version (CFAI-A) questionnaire, in the aforementioned contexts. Taking a comparative analyses of CFAI-A's psychometric characteristics in four different samples as a starting point, one discovered that despite the fact that the questionnaire was adapted to Portuguese reality, it kept the quality values presented on the American samples. It specifically shows significant values regarding reliability and validity. This questionnaire, which aims to assess the potential of foster families, also supports the technical staff's decision making process regarding the monitoring and support of foster families, while it also promotes a better decision in the placement process towards the child's integration and development.     

Predictors of foster care exits to permanency: A competing risks analysis of reunification, guardianship, and adoption

Although foster care is intended to be temporary, and policy explicitly requires permanency outcomes, many children experience lengthy stays and exit foster care without a permanent family. This study sought to identify which child and placement characteristics were important predictors of exit to three types of permanency outcomes: reunification, guardianship, and adoption. A sample of 3351 children who entered foster care in 2006 was observed for 30 to 42 months. Permanency outcomes were analyzed using competing risks survival analysis. Children exited foster care to different types of permanency at different rates and frequencies. Reunification occurred most quickly and frequently. Guardianship was second in terms of median duration but third in frequency. Adoption was the second most common exit but had the longest median duration. One in four children remained in foster care or exited without permanency. While patterns varied by type of permanency, three major categories of important predictors were identified: 1) demographic characteristics of age at entry and race, 2) clinical needs related to children's disabilities and mental health problems, and 3) continuity and connections represented by kin placements, sibling placements, early stability, and absence of runaway events. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.     

The age old question, which comes first? A simultaneous test of children's savings and children's college-bound identity

This study has three goals: (1) to provide an extensive review of research on the assets/expectation relationship, (2) to provide a conceptual framework for how children's savings effects children's college-bound identity (children's college expectations are a proxy for children's college-bound identity), and (3) to conduct a simultaneous test of whether owning a savings account leads to college-bound identity or college-bound identity lead to owning a savings account using path analytic technique with Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). Our review reveals asset researchers theorize about college-bound identity in two distinct but compatible ways: college-bound identity as a “linking mechanism”, and college-bound identity as a mediator. However, there has been little theoretical development on the attitudinal effects of assets. In this study, we posit a conceptual framework for how children's savings affects children's college-bound identity. Findings from the simultaneous test of the assets/college-bound identity relationship suggest that savings has modest effect on college-bound identity and vice versa. A policy implication is that asset building policies that seek to build children's college-bound identity in addition to their savings may be more effective than policies that only seek to build children's savings.     

Administrative case reviews: Improving outcomes for children in out-of-home care

For nearly three decades foster care review has been required and practiced in the United States. It is well established that foster care review was designed with the intent to reduce the time children spend in foster care and increase permanent placements for children. This article presents that foster care review, as practiced in Colorado, is a social work intervention and quantitative results of this study demonstrate that as an intervention, timely administrative case review is an effective social work intervention related to improving child welfare outcomes for the children and families served in Colorado. The major findings show that timely administrative case review and increased levels of review attendance (mother, father, Guardian ad litem's, and foster parents) are predictors of the child welfare outcomes of permanency and length of time in out-of-home care. Bivariate results indicate a median length of stay approximately 10.76 months longer for children who do not consistently receive timely case reviews. Additionally, the results show that timely care review moderates the underlying casework process related to caseworker contacts, demonstrating that a child's length of stay differs depending on the level of timely case review. In essence, the administrative case review process in Colorado is effectively achieving its goal and is an effective intervention for improving the lives of children in foster care.     

Foster children placed with or separated from siblings: Outcomes based on a national sample

This study examines a range of outcomes for children in foster care who have siblings, using a large, national U.S. database. Three types of sibling placements are defined: split (child has no siblings in the home), splintered (at least one sibling in the home), and together (all siblings in the home). The study analyzes records (n = 1701) from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing, including Child Protective Services (CPS) and Long-term Foster Care (LTFC) samples. It contributes to the literature in its inclusive definition of siblings, use of three categories for sibling placement status, and use of outcome measures that include the perceptions of foster children. The study reports limited significant findings. Neither foster parents' nor youths' reports of behavioral problems differ by sibling placement status. As rated by teachers, academic performance in the group placed together exceeds that in both of the other groups. For children in kinship homes, teachers also reported less problematic internalizing and externalizing behavior for the splintered and together groups than for the split group. Children in the splintered group also responded more favorably than those in the split group to questions of closeness to the primary caregiver and liking the people in the foster family.     

Racial/ethnic disparity in child welfare systems: A longitudinal study utilizing the Disparity Index (DI)

The purpose of the study is to examine racial/ethnic disparity among children and families that are involved with the child welfare system. Specifically, the authors explore whether or not disparity levels and long-term changes in disparity in California child welfare systems are significant. In addition, the study investigates how county characteristics such as child poverty rates, unemployment rates, and rurality are associated with levels of disparity and changes in racial/ethnic disparity over time. Using a Latent Growth Curve (LGC) modeling approach, the study estimated the trajectories of county-level Disparity Index (DI) scores (Shaw, Putnam-Hornstein, Magruder, & Needell, 2008). African American and Hispanic/Latino children were compared to Caucasian children for two phases of the child welfare process: substantiated allegations and entries, between 2005 and 2008. The results demonstrate that racial/ethnic disparity between African American and Caucasian children was significant at both phases of the child welfare process in 2008. However, disparity between Hispanic/Latino and White children was not significant. Levels of disparity between African American and Caucasian children remained constant over time. Regarding the effects of county characteristics, higher child poverty rates, higher unemployment rates and rurality were related to lower levels of disparity. In addition, unemployment rates were associated with increasing rates of change in entries disparity between African American and Caucasian children. And urbanicity was associated with increasing rates of change in substantiated allegations disparity between Hispanic/Latino and Caucasian children. The study's implications for future research are discussed.     

Reducing child poverty by promoting child well-being: Identifying best practices in a time of great need

Child poverty in the United States persists despite a range of social services designed to reduce poverty rates and improve the economic self-sufficiency of families. The economic downturns resulting in job losses and the housing crisis have converged to create a new group of families who were managing to remain out of poverty prior to the recession but are now slipping into poverty, putting additional strain on services. In light of these pressing issues, this article synthesizes the literature examining child poverty to take a long-range view of the relationship between economic strain, system involvement, and impacts on children and the systems attempting to serve these children. The effectiveness of various policy and program efforts aimed at reducing child poverty rates and/or ameliorating the negative effects of living in poverty is reviewed. The article concludes by suggesting a major shift in focus from reducing child poverty as a singular goal to a comprehensive approach to promoting child and family well-being.     

Resilience in parenting among young mothers: Family and ecological risks and opportunities

The present study used a person-centered approach to examine resilience in parenting among a sample of young mothers (under age 21 at childbirth). Resilient functioning as a parent was defined as the lack of perpetration of child maltreatment (substantiated reports of child abuse and neglect) in the context of risk. Risk factors were assessed at multiple levels, including family (e.g., negative childhood histories in family of origin) and ecological (e.g., neighborhood poverty, mother's financial stress) levels. Analyses revealed a group of mothers who demonstrated resilience in parenting despite a context of substantial risks from their childhood histories (e.g., negative family relationships) and current ecologies (e.g., economic and neighborhood conditions). Mothers in the resilient group were less likely to a) live with their families of origin, and b) to rely on their own mothers as sources of emotional or caregiving support. Data also indicated that young mothers' resilient functioning as parents was associated with higher rates of depressive symptoms among these mothers, perhaps suggesting a “cost” or limit to resilient parenting functioning in young mothers. Results are discussed in a resilience framework.     

Integrated Substance Abuse and Child Welfare Services for Women: A Progress Review

A review of empirical literature reveals improvements in service utilization and outcomes for women when substance abuse and child welfare services are integrated. The increased use of substances by women involved in the child welfare system has resulted in a call for integrated, coordinated, evidence-based practices. Since the late 1990s, specific system- and service-level strategies have been developed to coordinate and integrate the provision of substance abuse and child welfare services such that women are remaining in treatment longer and are more likely to reduce substance use and be reunited with their children. The strategies reviewed provide useful guidelines for developing components of effective, evidence-based programs for substance-involved women in the child welfare system.     

Improving the measurement of child welfare in the context of intra-household inequality

This study aims to illustrate how to improve the evaluation of child economic well-being and child poverty using the collective approach. International organisations such as the World Bank, OECD and UNICEF have made important efforts in recent years to produce reliable data and to measure poverty according to the most relevant items of household consumption baskets. However, when measuring poverty, it is common practice to assume either that resources are distributed equally within the household or that there are fixed equivalence scales (for example, a child can be counted as 0.5 adults). The methodology based on collective models of consumption overcomes this rigidity by allowing inequality within each household to be taken into account. The method assumes that each household devotes a fraction of resources to children, which can be estimated using the observed expenditure on child-exclusive goods. An example of how child poverty measures can be inaccurately estimated is illustrated through the case of young children in Albania.