Kathleen Wells

Reunification and reentry of foster children

Abstract This article reports the results of a case study of foster children in one county in Ohio. It examines questions pertaining to the child, family, and placement use characteristics associated with the timing of childrens reunification and, for those who are reunified, reentry into foster care. The sample includes 2,616 children first entering care in 1992 and in 1993. The study design is longitudinal. Study data are drawn from the countys public child welfare agencys management information system. Event history analyses of these data revealed characteristics associated with a slower rate of reunification and a faster rate of reentry. Strengths and limitations of study findings are discussed. Implications for future research are drawn.

Characteristics of youths referred to residential treatment: Implications for program design

Abstract This study evaluates the characteristics of youths referred to residential treatment at one private, nonprofit mental health agency over a 12-month period. One hundred eleven youths were study subjects. Characteristics studied included demographic, family functioning, family stress, youth functioning, and prior services used by youths. Study data were obtained from individuals who were knowledgeable about these youths through the conduct of in-person interviews. Interviews included questions with prestructured response formats and three standardized measures. Analyses revealed youths come from impoverished families, have significant functional impairments, and have used an extensive array of prior services. Relationships among family characteristics and youths behavioral problems were also found. Implications were drawn for program design.

Gender-role identity and psychological adjustment in adolescence.

The relationship between gender-role identity (traditional, androgynous, cross-gender, and undifferentiated) and psychological adjustment among adolescents was examined. Hypotheses were derived from theories of gender-role identity development. One hundred and three high school students completed a measure of gender-role identity (the Bem Sex-Role Inventory) and four measures of adjustment (three Offer Self-Image scales and the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale). Findings indicate that traditional, androgynous, and cross-gender identities are each associated with some aspect of superior adjustment. Undifferentiated adolescents are poorly adjusted. When the independent contribution of masculinity, femininity, and gender-role identity to adjustment was assessed, masculinity and femininity had greater predictive power than gender-role identity. The relationship of findings to gender-role identity development is discussed.

Research on Timing of Foster Care Outcomes: One Methodological Problem and Approaches to Its Solution

This article discusses the use of event history analysis, specifically the Cox proportional hazards model, in research on timing of foster care outcomes. It focuses on the inclusion of autocorrelated data in the model, a statistical problem that has received little attention in studies of the timing of exit from or reentry into foster care. This article describes the Cox model, the problem posed by use of the model with autocorrelated data, and promising solutions to the problem. It focuses on one solution, the WLW (Wei, Lin, and Weissfeld 1989) model, and shows its benefits with data drawn from the authors’ research program.

Reunification of Foster Children Before and After Welfare Reform

This article reports the results of a descriptive study of the speed with which foster children are returned home before and after welfare reform. The study relies on administrative data, has a prospective multiple‐cohort design, and includes a sample of 903 children. Event history analysis identifies several factors that are associated with reunification speed. The analysis shows that mothers’ incomes have a greater effect on the speed of reunification after welfare reform than before.

Child and Family Functioning after Intensive Family Preservation Services

In this study, we examined the functioning of children and families treated in an intensive family preservation service program. Study subjects were 42 adolescent children and one of their parents. Subjects were studied at admission, at discharge, and between 9 and 12 months after discharge. Data were drawn from interviews with children, their parents, and their caseworkers. Interviews were semistructured and included four standardized measures. Univariate and multivariate analyses revealed that at follow-up children and their families were functioning at a lower level than nonclinical samples, their functioning improved between admission and discharge and did not decline between discharge and follow-up, and child and family factors were more strongly associated with family functioning at follow-up than were treatment factors.

Gender Typing and Androgyny in Later Life

This paper assesses two theoretical perspectives on gender typing among the aged and suggests promising areas for future work. Gutmann’s role reversal theory and Sinnott’s role blurring (androgyny) th

The Experience of Being a Treatment Foster Mother

This study examines the experiences of treatment foster mothers. It is part of an ongoing longitudinal study of the use, implementation, and effectiveness of treatment foster care. The study sample is 43 treatment foster mothers. Study data are from in-person interviews with mothers in which each is asked to talk about the youth in her care and her experience of being the youth’s treatment foster mother. Mothers’ responses were analyzed through an inductive and iterative process. The analysis yielded six mutually exclusive categories of experience. Each category was labeled with a name that reflected a critical element of its definition: Strategic, Struggle, Satisfaction, Mothering, Rejection, and ‘Other’. Findings suggest wide variation in how treatment foster mothers experience their role and relationships with youth. Study strengths, limitations, and relevant theoretical frameworks for further work are discussed.

Residential treatment as long-term treatment: An examination of some issues

Child mental health professionals agree that high-quality residential treatment is an important element in the range of services that should be available to seriously emotionally disturbed children and adolescents (Duchnowski, Johnson, Hall, Kutash, & Friedman, 1993; Stroul & Friedman, 1986) and that because it should be used sparingly it is a radical and costly intervention. None~eless, over the past 20 years residential trea~ent has been subjected to a consistent and a withering attack for a variety of reasons. These include the assumptions that such services are overused, carry the potential for abuse and neglect of children, vary widely in effectiveness (Whittaker, 1990), and consume a disproportionate amount of funds for mental health treatment (Bums, 1991), and that residential treatment providers are either unable or unwilling to alter their programs to conform to reform agendas in child mental health and child welfare. These agendas emphasize preventing out-of-home placements of all kinds, involving families in the treatment of their children, treating children in the least restrictive enviro~ents that are cl~~c~ly approp~ate, and providing mental health and other services that are tailored to their individual needs. It is difficult, however, to evaluate the nature of the evidence pertaining to residential treatment because the issues are so complex. Residential treatment centers vary widely in size, structure, organization, treatment approach, and populations served. We lack conceptual frameworks that rationally link diagnosis, etiology, prognosis, and criteria for placement

Use of Research in Mental Health Practice and Policy

The view that research can be used to improve the human condition is widely held in American society. This view is compatible with the empirically minded spirit in which the nation was founded (Lynn, 1978), with the American tendency to resist making decisions based on authority as opposed to fact, and with the technological orientation of contemporary American society.