Sigrid James

Parent-Training Programs in Child Welfare Services: Planning for a More Evidence-Based Approach to Serving Biological Parents.

Child welfare service agencies provide parent training as part of their legally mandated responsibility to provide services to assist families to keep their children at home or to achieve reunification. The use of parent-training programs for families in the child welfare system has undergone relatively little examination. Mental health, special education, and juvenile justice have been identifying evidence-based approaches that have demonstrated effectiveness with children and families with conduct disorders and other behavioral problems, although few of these interventions have been tested with child welfare services clientele. This article brings together evidence about the most promising programs from other child service sectors with information about the current parent training approaches in child welfare and generates a range of proposals about next steps to enhance the capacity of parent training and fulfill the high expectations set in law and practice.

Why Do Foster Care Placements Disrupt? An Investigation of Reasons for Placement Change in Foster Care

This study examines the reasons for placement changes in foster care and analyzes determinates of the rate of behavior‐related placement change. Findings indicate that 20 percent of all changes are behavior related. Older age, externalizing behaviors, and emotional abuse increase the hazard of behavior‐related changes. The risk is lower when the child spends more days in kinship care. Having numerous system‐ or policy‐related moves does not increase risk of behavior‐related changes. Risk is highest during the 100 days after entry into care, suggesting that factors contributing to behavior‐related placement change might be present when a child enters care.

Estimating the “Impact” of Out‐of‐Home Placement on Child Well‐Being: Approaching the Problem of Selection Bias

This study used data on 2,453 children aged 4-17 from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being and 5 analytic methods that adjust for selection factors to estimate the impact of out-of-home placement on childrens cognitive skills and behavior problems. Methods included ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions and residualized change, simple change, difference-in-difference, and fixed effects models. Models were estimated using the full sample and a matched sample generated by propensity scoring. Although results from the unmatched OLS and residualized change models suggested that out-of-home placement is associated with increased child behavior problems, estimates from models that more rigorously adjust for selection bias indicated that placement has little effect on childrens cognitive skills or behavior problems.

Predictors of Placement Moves Among Children With and Without Emotional and Behavioral Disorders

Children identified as having emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) may have different out-of-home care placements than their peers without EBD.This study compared the factors influencing placement movements for 362 children with EBD and 363 children without EBD, using clinical Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) scores at baseline data collection of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being. The analyses explored potential case characteristics influencing the number of placements for children with a clinical CBCL score at baseline data collection. Poisson regression models were used to explain the number of placements experienced during the first 36 months of placement. Overall, children with a clinical-level CBCL score were 2.5 times as likely to experience four or more placements as their nonclinical peers. Findings indicated that the presence of depression and not residing with siblings predicted movement among children with EBD. Among children without EBD, only older age was strongly associated with placement moves. Although the direction of effects is equivocal, these results call for greater attention to childrens experience of out-of-home placement and the lack of homogeneity among children who are placed outside their homes.

Predictors of Outpatient Mental Health Service Use—The Role of Foster Care Placement Change

This study examined the relationship between placement change and outpatient mental health service use. It is based on (1) conceptual propositions about the impact of the foster care living context on mental health service use, and (2) empirical knowledge about the adverse consequences of placement change. Results of the study, which were based on a cohort of 570 children in foster care in San Diego County, suggest an association between placement changes in child welfare and use of outpatient mental health services. Specifically, an increase in the number of placement changes predicted a greater rate of outpatient mental health visits. The study further found that children who experienced behavior-related placement changes received more outpatient mental health visits than children who experienced placement changes for other reasons. Follow-up analyses of the 144 children who experienced any behavior-related placement changes further indicated that the rate of outpatient mental health service use almost doubled in the 90 days following the first behavior-related placement change. Findings from this study have implications for the practice, policy and research fields in child welfare as well as mental health.

Children in Out-of-Home Care: Entry Into Intensive or Restrictive Mental Health and Residential Care Placements

Using longitudinal data from the National Survey on Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), this study investigates entry into intensive or restrictive settings during a 36-month study period. Specifically, this analysis examines entry into treatment foster care, group homes, residential treatment, and inpatient psychiatric care for youth placed into out-of-home care (n = 981). It aims to determine at what point in their first out-of-home episodes and for what reasons youth entered such settings. As NSCAW used a national probability sampling design,this analysis provides national estimates about entry into intensive or restrictive settings for youth in out-of-home care. Twenty-five percent of youth (n = 280) experienced an intensive or restrictive setting during their first out-of-home care episode; 70% were in either group homes (33.2%) or residential treatment settings (37.0%).About half of the youth with such placements (48.9%) were placed into intensive or restrictive settings as a first placement during their first out-of-home episode.

Preferred Characteristics of Children in Need of Adoption: Is There a Demand for Available Foster Children?

This study examines 625 Caucasian adoptive parents’ preferences for certain characteristics in adoptive children in order to assist child‐welfare professionals in achieving greater levels of permanency for available foster children. Findings indicate that when willing to adopt a foster child parents generally prefer Caucasian, young, and non–special needs children. However, parents also appear to be willing to adopt foster children who are of color, older, or who have special needs. An underutilized pool of prospective adopters therefore may exist for foster children with a range of characteristics.

Therapeutic residential care for children and youth: a consensus statement of the International Work Group on Therapeutic Residential Care

While the focus of this consensus statement and the review volume that preceded it (Whittaker, Del Valle, & Holmes, 2014) is on therapeutic residential care (TRC), a specialized form of group care, we view our work as supportive of a much wider effort internationally concerned with the quality of care children receive when, for a variety of reasons, they need to live away from their families.

Characteristics and Behavioral Outcomes for Youth in Group Care and Family-Based Care: A Propensity Score Matching Approach Using National Data.

This study aimed to answer two questions: (a) Given expected differences in children who are placed in group care compared to those in family-based settings, is it possible to match children on baseline characteristics? (b) Are there differences in behavioral outcomes for youth with episodes in group care versus those in family-based care? Using data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being, the study sample included 1,191 children with episodes in out-of-home care (n = 254 youth with group care episodes; n = 937 youth with episodes in family-based care and no group care). Conditioning variables were identified, which distinguished between the two groups of youth. Using propensity score matching, all youth placed into group care were matched on the propensity score with family-based care youth. Behavioral outcomes at 36 months, as measured by the Child Behavior Checklist, were compared for the matched sample. Of the total 254 youth with group care episodes, 157 could be matched to youth with episodes in family-based care. No significant differences remained between the two groups in the matched sample, and findings revealed no significant differences in longitudinal behavioral outcomes.

Psychological Distress in Afghan Refugees: A Mixed-Method Systematic Review

Abstract Mental health problems disproportionately affect Afghan refugees and asylum seekers who continue to seek international protection with prolonged exposure to war. We performed a systematic review aimed at synthesizing peer-reviewed literature pertaining to mental health problems among Afghans resettled in industrialized nations. We used five databases to identify studies published between 1979 and 2013 that provided data on distress levels, and subjective experiences with distress. Seventeen studies met our inclusion criteria consisting of 1 mixed-method, 7 qualitative, and 9 quantitative studies. Themes from our qualitative synthesis described antecedents for distress being rooted in cultural conflicts and loss, and also described unique coping mechanisms. Quantitative findings indicated moderate to high prevalence of depressive and posttraumatic symptomatology. These findings support the need for continued mental health research with Afghans that accounts for: distress among newly resettled groups, professional help-seeking utilization patterns, and also culturally relevant strategies for mitigating distress and engaging Afghans in research.