Judy Havlicek

Patterns of Movement in Foster Care: An Optimal Matching Analysis

Placement instability remains a vexing problem for child welfare agencies across the country. This study uses child welfare administrative data to retrospectively follow the entire placement histories (birth to age 17.5) of 474 foster youth who reached the age of majority in the state of Illinois and to search for patterns in their movement through the child welfare system. Patterns are identified through optimal matching and hierarchical cluster analyses. Multiple logistic regression is used to analyze administrative and survey data in order to examine covariates related to patterns. Five distinct patterns of movement are differentiated: Late Movers, Settled with Kin, Community Care, Institutionalized, and Early Entry. These patterns suggest high but variable rates of movement. Implications for child welfare policy and service provision are discussed.

Maltreatment histories of foster youth exiting out-of-home care through emancipation: a latent class analysis

Little is known about maltreatment among foster youth transitioning to adulthood. Multiple entries into out-of-home care and unsuccessful attempts at reunification may nevertheless reflect extended exposure to chronic maltreatment and multiple types of victimization. This study used administrative data from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to identify all unduplicated allegations of maltreatment in a cohort of 801 foster youth transitioning to adulthood in the state of Illinois. A latent variable modeling approach generated profiles of maltreatment based on substantiated and unsubstantiated reports of maltreatment taken from state administrative data. Four indicators of maltreatment were included in the latent class analysis: multiple types of maltreatment, predominant type of maltreatment, chronicity, and number of different perpetrators. The analysis identified four subpopulations of foster youth in relation to maltreatment. Study findings highlight the heterogeneity of maltreatment in the lives of foster youth transitioning to adulthood and draw attention to a need to raise awareness among service providers to screen for chronic maltreatment and multiple types of victimization.

Maltreatment histories of aging out foster youth: a comparison of official investigated reports and self-reports of maltreatment prior to and during out-of-home care

This study compared official investigated reports of child maltreatment with retrospective self-reports prior to and during out-of-home care for a sample of foster youth who reached the age of majority in out-of-home care in Illinois. Using matched administrative and self-reported data for 474 youth who completed a baseline interview in the Midwest Evaluation of Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (i.e. the Midwest study) at ages 17-18, and 386 youth who completed a follow up interview at age 19, this study finds that official reports and self-reports of maltreatment prior to and during out-of-home care differ significantly. Findings from this study add insight into measurement discrepancies, and help to inform understanding of the extent of maltreatment experienced by this sub-sample of young people exiting out-of-home care in adulthood. Study findings have implications for independent living policy and practice in child welfare.

Foster Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder: Prevalence, Length of Stay, and Placement Patterns

The goals of this study are to identify the prevalence of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) entering out-of-home care and to focus attention on length of stay and placement stability. To achieve these goals, this study links Illinois administrative data with Medicaid records. Overall, 2.4% of the sample has a diagnosis of ASD. The median length of stay for children with ASD is 1.6 times longer than children without ASD. A latent class analysis identifies three distinct profiles of movement: escalating, de-escalating, and continuous. Study findings are discussed in the context of service needs of children with ASD.

Development and piloting of a treatment foster care program for older youth with psychiatric problems

BackgroundOlder youth in out-of-home care often live in restrictive settings and face psychiatric issues without sufficient family support. This paper reports on the development and piloting of a manualized treatment foster care program designed to step down older youth with high psychiatric needs from residential programs to treatment foster care homes.MethodsA team of researchers and agency partners set out to develop a treatment foster care model for older youth based on Multi-dimensional Treatment Foster Care (MTFC). After matching youth by mental health condition and determining for whom randomization would be allowed, 14 youth were randomized to treatment as usual or a treatment foster home intervention. Stakeholders were interviewed qualitatively at multiple time points. Quantitative measures assessed mental health symptoms, days in locked facilities, employment and educational outcomes.ResultsDevelopment efforts led to substantial variations from the MTFC model and a new model, Treatment Foster Care for Older Youth was piloted. Feasibility monitoring suggested that it was difficult, but possible to recruit and randomize youth from and out of residential homes and that foster parents could be recruited to serve them. Qualitative data pointed to some qualified clinical successes. Stakeholders viewed two team roles – that of psychiatric nurse and skills coaches – very highly. However, results also suggested that foster parents and some staff did not tolerate the intervention well and struggled to address the emotion dysregulation issues of the young people they served. Quantitative data demonstrated that the intervention was not keeping youth out of locked facilities.ConclusionsThe intervention needed further refinement prior to a broader trial. Intervention development work continued until components were developed to help address emotion regulation problems among fostered youth. Psychiatric nurses and skills coaches who work with youth in community settings hold promise as important supports for older youth with psychiatric needs.

Pathways to Residential Care: Latent Class and Confirmatory Analyses of Adolescents’ Adverse Placement Event Histories

This study aims to develop greater understanding of the preplacement experiences of adolescents who enter residential care through the child welfare system by identifying a discrete set of modal placement histories as indicated by the occurrence of one or more adverse placement events. To this end, we analyze the placement experiences of a sample of 2,542 adolescents entering residential care under the auspices of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS) using repeated-measures latent class analysis (RMLCA). We identify six distinct adverse placement event pathways, differentiated by a combination of prevailing event type and the timing of adverse event onset. We find that these pathways are associated with analogous residential care discharge outcomes, that is, discharges that mirror a pathway’s prevailing event type. Moreover, we find that the likelihood of experiencing an analogous discharge is higher for adolescents experiencing pathways characterized by longer persistence than it is for adolescents experiencing pathways characterized by later onset or shorter persistence.

The Illinois State Foster Youth Advisory Board as a Counterspace for Well-Being through Identity Work: Perspectives of Current and Former Members

Foster youth advisory boards (YABs) are well known for their advocacy mission. Less is known about other benefits that may come from participation. This constructivist grounded theory study seeks to expand the conceptual understanding of one aspect of adolescent development and well-being—meaning-making around identity—among 33 current and former elected officers of the Illinois state foster youth advisory board. The findings suggest that the YAB created a platform for the participants to challenge and reinterpret their experiences in ways that normalized, protected, and enhanced positive aspects of their identities. Three interconnected conditions of the YAB supported this process: affiliating with peers, accessing generative adults, and trying on new roles. Our discussion explores a conceptualization of the YAB as a counterspace and draws attention to the specific role that institutional and professional contexts play in promoting healthy development and well-being of foster youth.