Jill E. Spielfogel

Predicting family reunification, adoption, and subsidized guardianship among adolescents in foster care.

Although national legislation has attempted to decrease the length of time that children spend in foster care, these policies have been less effective with adolescents than with children, raising questions about how best to promote permanency for adolescents. This study examined factors that predict adolescent adoption, subsidized guardianship, and reunification. The caseworkers and foster parents of 203 randomly selected 12- to 13-year-olds placed in traditional or specialized foster care were interviewed. Permanency outcomes were prospectively tracked for 8 years. By the end of the study, over 40% of the adolescents were placed in permanent homes. As hypothesized, a strong relationship with a biological mother predicted successful reunification, and a high degree of integration into a foster home predicted adoption. Additionally, when compared with adoption, subsidized guardianship with foster parents occurred more frequently for youth with strong relationships with their biological mothers and weaker relationships with their foster families. Unexpectedly, behavior problems were not related to any permanency outcomes. Results suggest that promotion of strong relationships with adults is the key in efforts to find permanent families for foster children. Furthermore, efforts to attain permanency should not cease during adolescence.

Disagreement in Parental Reports of Father Involvement

Despite agreement on the value of father involvement in children’s lives, research has been limited due to the exclusion of fathers in studies, questionable validity of mothers’ reports on father involvement, and simple measures of fathering behavior. Our study extends previous research by comparing reports of father involvement using robust, multidimensional father involvement measures. Data from 113 fathers and 126 mothers reporting on 221 children were used to assess father involvement. Results indicate that fathers reported significantly higher levels of involvement than mothers reported. Findings from hierarchical linear models suggest that race/ethnicity and mothers’ reports of positive relationship quality were associated with smaller discrepancies in reports of father involvement, whereas nonmarried partnerships, older children, father residence, and biological status predicted larger discrepancies. Our study demonstrates the importance of obtaining father involvement reports directly from fathers and why father involvement should be assessed as a multidimensional construct to examine fathering behavior.

Agency Culture and Climate in Child Welfare: Do Perceptions Vary by Exposure to the Child Welfare System?

ABSTRACT Organizational culture and climate play a critical role in worker retention and outcomes, yet little is known about whether perceptions of culture and climate vary depending on the demands of particular roles. In this study, 113 staff from a child welfare agency completed Organizational Social Context profiles. Staff were divided into three groups according to their proximity to child welfare tasks to assess whether involvement in higher-stress child welfare tasks is related to perceptions of the social context. Findings suggest possible differences across groups, with those involved in core child welfare tasks appearing to perceive higher resistance to new ways of providing services and those with the least involvement in traditional child welfare perceiving a more positive social context overall.

Correction to: The Effect of a Change Agent on Use of Evidence-Based Mental Health Practices

The original version of this article unfortunately contained a mistake.

Current use of de-escalation strategies: Similarities and differences in de-escalation across professions

ABSTRACT De-escalation is a skill most commonly discussed in mental health settings, but it occurs across professions in fields such as law enforcement, nursing, and customer service. While much of the literature describes what could be done to de-escalate someone, we know very little about what is actually being done in practice. In this study, we survey 56 professionals with expertise in de-escalation about the strategies that they use to help people in distress. Using group concept mapping, multidimensional scaling, and cluster analysis, we provide a description of similarities and differences in what mental health providers rate as most important as compared to those working in other professions. Findings suggest that across professions, communication, body language, listening and validation are considered highly important for effective de-escalation. Although both groups also emphasize environmental safety, safety was less of a primary concern for mental health professionals. Applications for these findings are discussed.