Minseop Kim

Foster Youth and Social Support The First RCT of Independent Living Services

Objective: Conduct secondary data analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of Massachusetts’ Adolescent Outreach Program for Youths in Intensive Foster Care (Outreach) for increasing social support (SS) among enrolled youth. Participants: 194 youth in intensive foster care under the guardianship of the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families with a goal of independent living (IL) or long-term substitute care, and born between August 1985 and December 1990 (67% female, 66% White, 27% Hispanic) participated in the study between September 2004 and March 2009. Method: We hypothesized that Outreach compared to services as usual (SAU; control group) would increase participants’ SS and that there would be racial/ethnic disparities in SS as a function of the Outreach. Treatment effects were tested using mixed-effect models. Results: Outreach did not increase foster youth’s SS, compared to SAU. No racial/ethnic disparities in program effect were detected. Discussion and Applications to Social Work: Providers of IL services should reconsider how best to build and strengthen SS among the foster youth they serve.

Risk-Taking and Self-Regulation A Systematic Review of the Analysis of Delinquency Outcomes in the Juvenile Justice Intervention Literature 1996-2009

The purpose of this study was to investigate the juvenile justice intervention literature for the statistical consideration given the impact that age, as a marker of neuropsychosocial development, may have on delinquency outcomes. A systematic review of 117 studies published between 1996 and 2009 was conducted to assess the methods by which curvilinear and moderating effects of age were included in the analysis of delinquency outcomes. Ninety-one percent of studies may have underestimated intervention effects through the misspecification of the effect of age on delinquency outcomes. Of the 10 studies that did test for curvilinear and interaction effects, 80% had findings consistent with neuropsychosocial theories of age on delinquency. To account for age effects on delinquency, the regular use of multiple age groups in analysis may increase both the precision with which intervention effects are measured and the identification of specific age groups with whom individual interventions are most effective.

Measuring Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health Service Use Among Children Referred to the Child Welfare System.

This study aims to compare different approaches to measuring racial/ethnic disparities in mental health (MH) service use among a nationwide representative sample of children referred to the child welfare system and compare the magnitude and direction of potential disparities in MH service use over time. Using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, six summary measures of disparity were implemented to quantify racial/ethnic disparities in MH service use. This study found that youth of color were less likely than their White counterparts to receive MH services. This racial/ethnic disparity was found to increase over time; however, the magnitude of the increase varied considerably across disparity measures. In addition, the estimated increases in disparity were even greater when the sample was limited to youth in need of MH services. This study shows that the same data may produce different magnitudes of disparity, depending on which metric is implemented and whether MH need is accounted for. A greater understanding of and justification for selection of methods to examine MH disparities among child welfare researchers and policy makers is warranted.

Parental Nonstandard Work Schedules, Parent–Child Communication, and Adolescent Substance Use

The purpose of this study was to examine the cumulative impact of parental nonstandard work schedules (NWS) on adolescent alcohol and cigarette use, with a focus on the mediating role of parent–child communication. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 and its Child Supplement, our path analyses revealed that (a) parental NWS affected adolescent alcohol and cigarette use via the openness of parent–child communication rather than the frequency of parent–child communication and (b) the pattern and directionality of the mediating effects differed by who worked NWS, when parents worked NWS, and what types of NWS parents worked. Implications and directions for future studies are discussed.

Socio-contextual Determinants of Research Evidence Use in Public-Youth Systems of Care

Recent efforts have been devoted to understanding the conditions by which research evidence use (REU) is facilitated from the perspective of system leaders in the context of implementing evidence-based child mental health interventions. However, we have limited understanding of the extent to which outer contextual factors influence REU. Outer contextual factors for 37 counties in California were gathered from public records in 2008; and child welfare, juvenile justice, and mental health system leaders’ perceptions of their REU were measured via a web-based survey from 2010 to 2012. Results showed that leaders with higher educational attainment and in counties with lower expenditures on inpatient mental health services were significantly associated with higher REU. Positive relationships between gathering research evidence and racial minority concentration and poverty at the county level were also detected. Results underscore the need to identify the organizational and socio-political factors by which mental health services and resources meet client demands that influence REU, and to recruit and retain providers with a graduate degree to negotiate work demands and interpret research evidence.

From placement to prison revisited: Do mental health services disrupt the delinquency pipeline among Latino, African American and Caucasian youth in the child welfare system?

Racial and ethnic disparities in delinquency among child welfare-involved youth are well documented. However, less is known about the mechanisms through which these disparities occur. This study explores the extent to which sets of variables predict the occurrence of juvenile delinquency and whether race/ethnicity moderates the strength of the relationships between (1) social, emotional, and behavioral (SEB) problems and delinquency and (2) mental health service use and delinquency. We used a nationally representative sample of 727 African American, Caucasian, and Latino youth between the ages of 12-17 who were referred to the child welfare system. Controlling for age, gender, placement instability, maltreatment history, poverty, and urbanicity, linear regression analyses revealed that African American and Latino youth engaged in more delinquent acts than Caucasian youth did. However, service use decreased the likelihood of engaging in more delinquent acts for African Americans. Additional efforts are needed to illuminate and address the contextual and organizational barriers to delivering effective mental health services as a strategy to reduce racial disparities in delinquent behavior.

Risk-taking and self-regulation: a systematic review of the analysis of delinquency outcomes in the juvenile justice intervention literature 1996-2009

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Psychiatric Hospitalization Among Adolescents

About one in five adolescents has psychiatric disorders that are serious enough to disrupt normal life functioning. Since youth with such problems may need intensive treatment, hospitalization continues to be an important part of mental health service provision. However, little is known about inpatient care for this population. Existing research has yielded inconsistent findings. There are several examples of this inconsistency. For instance, some investigators 3 suggest that the various psychiatric disorders (e.g., depression, anxiety) are equally likely to result in hospitalization. In other words, when all disorders are taken together, none of them stand out as being especially linked to admission. In short, everyone is at risk. On the contrary, other researchers found that depressed adolescents are more likely than other youth to be hospitalized. Still other researchers point to conduct or oppositional defiant disorder. Taken together, there is a lack of consensus as to which disorders, if any, are more closely linked to hospitalization. Researchers have also examined the relationship between demographic characteristics and psychiatric hospitalization. A better understanding of such characteristics can help identify those adolescents who are most at risk. However, literature on demographic risk is also inconclusive. For instance, some investigators 9 suggest that younger children are more likely than older youth to be hospitalized, but Foster found the reverse to be true. Similarly, Pavkov and colleagues found that African Americans are at heightened risk, but Foster found that Caucasians are more likely to be readmitted. Still other studies 4, 7 found no ethnicity differences. Given these inconsistent findings, this study sought to examine which diagnoses are associated with psychiatric hospitalization and which demographic factors are associated with inpatient stay? More specifically, presence of disruptive behavior disorders (attention deficit, oppositional defiant, or conduct disorders) might be associated with increased hospitalization risk. Because symptoms are often exhibited externally (acted out) in these disorders, they may outwardly signal the need for inpatient stay to a greater extent than disorders that are expressed inwardly (e.g., depression). Or

Assessing attitudes towards evidence-based practice among social workers in Hong Kong:

Summary Given that professionals’ attitudes towards evidence-based practice is a key to implementing evidence-based practice, considerable attention has been devoted to understanding social workers’ attitudes towards evidence-based practice, with interventions to change those attitudes and thereby promote the adoption of evidence-based practice. In the Chinese context, however, neither systematic studies nor interventions have been conducted, in part because of the lack of valid scales to measure such attitudes among Chinese social workers. This study examined the reliability and validity of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale, using data collected from 181 registered social workers in Hong Kong. Findings Confirmative factor analysis found that Chinese social workers’ attitudes towards evidence-based practice can be captured by four distinct constructs: (1) intuitive Appeal of evidence-based practice, (2) likelihood of adopting evidence-based practice given Requirements to, (3) Openness to change, and (4) Divergence of usual practice with research-based interventions. Reliability coefficients showed that the subscales and overall scale have good internal consistency reliability. With the demonstrated validity and reliability, scores on the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale indicated that Hong Kong social workers have less positive attitudes towards evidence-based practice, compared to their Western counterparts. Applications This study provides evidence about the potential usefulness of the Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale for research and practice in the Chinese context. The Evidence-Based Practice Attitude Scale can be used for studies to uncover remediable barriers to the adoption of evidence-based practice, which may inform the development of tailored evidence-based practice implementation and dissemination strategies in the Chinese context.

Area-socioeconomic disparities in mental health service use among children involved in the child welfare system

Relying on data from a nationally representative sample of youth involved in the child welfare system (CWS) in 1999-2000 (the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, Cohort 1) and 2008-2009 (Cohort 2), this study implemented a diverse set of disparity indicators to estimate area-socioeconomic disparities in mental health (MH) services use and changes in area-socioeconomic disparities between the two cohorts. Our study found that there are area-socioeconomic disparities in MH service use, indicating that the rates of MH service use among youth referred to the CWS differ by area-socioeconomic positions defined by county-level poverty rates. We also found that area-socioeconomic disparities increased over time. However, the magnitude of the increase varied widely across disparity measures, suggesting that there are different conclusions about the trend and magnitude of area-socioeconomic disparities, depending upon which disparity measures are implemented. A greater understanding of the methodological differences among disparity measures is warranted, which will in turn impact how interventions are designed to reduce socioeconomic disparities among children in the CWS.