Previous Page Next Page 
(c)  2025 Columbia University Press. All Rights reserved.

Research Methods in Child Welfare resources

Extracted Text (may have errors)

8 Introduction to Child Welfare Research the dynamics of foster care (Vogel 1999). For example, Wulczyn (1996) ap- plied newly developed statistical techniques such as survival analysis and the use of entry cohorts to a multistate study of the length of stay in foster care. By using survival analysis and an entry cohort, all data can be used— even if some of the children in the sample had not yet exited care—to docu- ment length of stay in care and to link reductions in stays to program or policy changes. Building on this work, Baker, Wulczyn, and Dale (2005) used survival analysis to examine factors associated with rate of discharge from a residential treatment center. For youth who were transferred or re- unifi ed, mental health issues were the strongest factor that slowed down the rate of discharge. Beyond questions related to length of stay, researchers have also focused on placement stability and its relationship to permanency, in response to ev- idence that multiple placements while in foster care negatively impact the likelihood of a child being reunifi ed (Landsverk, Davis, Ganger, Newton, and Johnson 1996). For example, Wulczyn, Kogan, and Harden (2003) found that the initial six months in care were crucial for a child in foster care to make a connection with his or her foster family. Level of care was also examined as a factor affecting length of stay and stability of placements. Using data from the state of California, Berrick, Barth, Needell, and Reid (1998) found that younger children in group care settings had less stability, lower rates of adoption, and longer stays in care. Other researchers have focused on the impact of reunifi cation and the potential for recidivism back into foster care. Festinger (1996) studied 210 children in New York City who exited foster care (either foster boarding home or group care). For those children who returned within twelve months (12.9 percent of the sample), the strongest predictors of reentry were four characteristics/experiences of the biological parents: lower parenting skills (as rated by caseworkers), less social support, more unmet needs (as rated by caseworkers), and less or gan i za tion al participation in community groups. Legislation and research has also been concerned with preventing out- of- home placement of children. The 1980 Adoption Assistance and Child Wel- fare Act required states to make “reasonable efforts” to prevent children from entering foster care and to reunify children who were placed out of the home. As part of the legislation, the Department of Health and Human Ser- vices (DHHS) was authorized to set aside funds to evaluate a range of family preservation and family support programs. Several related but distinct models of prevention have emerged as the fo- cus of research, policy, and practice (Nelson and Landsman 1990). One par- ticularly well- known model is crisis intervention, of which the Homebuilders

Help

loading