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The politics of child welfare: are child welfare policies, budgets and functioning a red/blue issue?
- Authors:
- BROWN C. Taylor, OCAMPO Maria Gandarilla, DRAKE Brett
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 132, 2021, p.106282.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Child Protective Services (CPS) are a politically contentious area of practice and policy. While this is well known, no attempts have been made to understand differences in state level CPS systems as a function of state political orientation. This study explored the bivariate and limited multivariate relationships between state political orientation (governorships, legislature and public voting patterns), CPS funding, the adoption of specific policies (differential response, drug policy, intimate partner violence policy, centralization and mandated reporting), system inputs (referral rate, percentage of reports from mandated sources, report types), and system outputs (percent screened in, percent substantiated and percent placed). This study also explore the degree to which other state characteristics (wealth, rurality) are related to these outcomes. This study found that political orientation has few associations with any of the dependent measures, and when present, such associations could plausibly related to state income and rurality measures, which did have consistent relationships to CPS functioning. This approach found little indication that “Red” and “Blue” states differ markedly with regard to their CPS systems, and this paper includes a series of suggestions for future research. This paper discusses the potential policy and practice implications of the findings. (Edited publisher abstract)
Foster care re-entry: exploring the role of foster care characteristics, in-home child welfare services and cross-sector services
- Authors:
- LEE Sangmoo, JONSON-REID Melissa, DRAKE Brett
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), September 2012, pp.1825-1833.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Between 16-40% of children who leave foster care will later re-enter. The aim of this study was to investigate the risk factors that may impact the likelihood of re-entry into foster care. Risk factors can be classed as non-modifiable factors which cannot be changed (e.g. gender) and modifiable factors which re amenable to change (e.g. service or treatment history). A total of 846 children who entered foster care for the first time following at least one report of maltreatment and were then reunified were followed from exit to re-entry, age 18 or the end of the study period using longitudinal administrative data. The findings showed that children removed from homes with parents who had multiple risk factors (e.g., no high school diploma, mental health diagnosis, criminal record, or teen parents) or were receiving AFDC benefits prior to entry were more likely to re-enter. The receipt of in-home child welfare services during or after foster care was associated with reduced risk of re-entry. Having the longest placement with a relative was associated with decreased risk of re-entry. In conclusion, both modifiable and non-modifiable factors are associated with re-entry into foster care. Among modifiable factors, services appear to have a particularly strong relationship to re-entry. The data also suggest that in-home child welfare services provided during and after foster care may be associated with improved long-term permanency after return home.
Are economic trends associated with child maltreatment? Preliminary results from the recent recession using state level data
- Authors:
- MILLETT Lina, LANIER Paul, DRAKE Brett
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 33(7), July 2011, pp.1280-1287.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This study examined the effects of the economic recession on child maltreatment rates, focussing on whether unemployment rates, labour force participation, and food stamp usage were associated with rates of child maltreatment. It explored changes in maltreatment and utilisation of economic variables as predictors over time. While previous research supports the relationship between family and neighbourhood poverty and incidence of child maltreatment, the relationship between general economic environment and child maltreatment remains uncertain. The study analysed child maltreatment and economic data for seven states in the US. Aggregate numbers for child maltreatment reports and food stamp usage were obtained from state respective agencies and economic data for unemployment and labour force from the Current Population Survey from the Bureau of Labour Statistics. However, findings revealed a weak and inconsistent relationship between the economic indicators in this study and maltreatment rates. Possible reasons for the weak correlation of these results are discussed.
Maternal mental illness and the safety and stability of maltreated children
- Authors:
- KOHL Patricia L., JONSON-REID Melissa, DRAKE Brett
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 35(5), May 2011, pp.309-318.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Mothers with a mental illness put their children at risk for negative outcomes such as maltreatment and foster care placement. This study investigated the association between maternal mental illness and children's long term safety and stability. Data from the Department of Social Services and Department of Mental included 4,895 low income mother and child dyads first reported to child welfare in 1993 or 1994. Families were followed until March of 2009. Schizophrenic, episodic mood, anxiety and personality disorders were measured. Findings revealed that new reports were more likely for children of mothers with mental illness, regardless of diagnosis. While overall 67% of children had a new report over the course of their childhood, rates ranged from 80 to 90% for children of mothers with mental illness and occurred within a shorter time frame than for other children. Mood and anxiety disorders placed children at greater risk for new reports. The proportion of children with foster placements was more than doubled. Anxiety disorders were strongly associated with the risk of placement. The authors concluded that the services that the mothers’ received may be ineffective in helping them parent safely.
The racial divide among American children in poverty: reassessing the importance of neighbourhood
- Authors:
- DRAKE Brett, RANK Mark R.
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 31(12), December 2009, pp.1264-1271.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
The extent of childhood poverty in the United States surpasses that of virtually every other western industrialised country. Yet what is most striking is the substantial variation in risk across racial and ethnic groups. Census data indicates that black and Hispanic children in the United States are approximately two to three times more likely than white children to fall below the official poverty line. Yet this statistic masks a much higher disparity in the frequency of poverty between white and non-white children. This paper investigates the degree of this racial and ethnic divide through an alternative and new metric of childhood neighbourhood poverty. Drawing data from the 1990 and 2000 United States Census the authors estimate the percentage of white, black, and Hispanic children residing in high childhood poverty neighbourhoods. The results indicate that black children are up to 14 times more likely to live in a high childhood poverty neighbourhood when compared to their white counterparts, and, for black children living below the poverty line, the majority will experience the double disadvantage of living in a poor minority childhood neighbourhood as well. Findings for Hispanic children are similar to those for black children, although slightly less pronounced.
Race and child maltreatment reporting: are Blacks overrepresented?
- Authors:
- DRAKE Brett, LEE Sang Moo, JONSON-REED Melissa
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 31(3), March 2009, pp.309-316.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This paper uses Census and child welfare report data from Missouri (1999, 2000 & 2001) to determine if child maltreatment are reported for at similar or different rates for Black and White people while controlling for poverty and racial homogeneity. No evidence was found for high levels of racial disproportionality once poverty is controlled. Poverty is generally associated with higher rates of reporting for both races. Some evidence of differential sensitivity was found, with the relationship between poverty and report rate being somewhat stronger for White people than those from Black people.
Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need?
- Authors:
- JONSON-REID Melissa, DRAKE Brett, KOHL Patricia
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 31(3), March 2009, pp.422-427.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This study uses data from child welfare (report, assessment, service and re-report), income maintenance, special education, hospitals, juvenile court, public mental health treatment, and census data to assess whether there is an artificial overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads in the US or whether this reflects the co-occurrence of poverty and need . Poor children reported for maltreatment had greater risk factors at the parent and neighbourhood levels and higher rates of negative outcomes than children in either comparison group. Among children reported for maltreatment, poor children have worse outcomes, both within child welfare (e.g., recurrence) and outside of child welfare (e.g. juvenile court, hospitalization for violence) than non-poor children. These data suggest that the overrepresentation of poor children is driven largely by the presence of increased risk among the poor children that come to the attention of child welfare rather than high levels of systemic class bias.
Rereporting of child maltreatment: does participation in other public sector services moderate the likelihood of a second maltreatment report?
- Authors:
- DRAKE Brett, JONSON-REID Melissa, SAPOKAITE Lina
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 30(11), November 2006, pp.1201-1226.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This American study uses administrative data to track the first rereports of maltreatment in a low-income, urban child welfare population (n = 4957) while controlling for other public service involvement. The study models the rereporting of a child for maltreatment as a function of child, caregiver, service, and neighbourhood characteristics using data from birth records, child welfare, income maintenance, Medicaid, adult corrections, juvenile court, special education, law enforcement, and census sources. Bivariate and multivariate analyses are presented, the latter using Cox regression with a robust sandwich covariance matrix estimate to account for the intracluster dependence within tracts. Key results across bivariate and multivariate analyses included a lower rate of rereporting among children with parents who were high school graduates and/or permanently exited from the first spell on AFDC; and for children in families that received less intensive in-home services compared to those not receiving services, receiving intensive in-home, or foster care services. Higher rates of rereporting were found for children with Medicaid mental health/substance abuse treatment records and special education eligibility for emotional disturbance. Caretaker characteristics and nonchild welfare service use patterns had a strong association with the likelihood of a child being rereported to the child welfare agency and should be more heavily attended to by child welfare workers. High rates of service sector overlap suggest that interagency ties and cooperation should be strengthened. The lower risk associated with less intensive in-home services compared to unserved cases may indicate underidentification of in-home service eligibility following a first report of maltreatment.
Intensive family preservation services: where's the crisis?
- Authors:
- STAUDT Marlys, DRAKE Brett
- Journal article citation:
- Children and Youth Services Review, 24(9/10), September 2002, pp.777-795.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
This article presents some of the basic tenets of crisis theory with an emphasis on precrisis functioning, the definition of crisis events, the time limited nature of crises and the goals of crisis intervention. Although the short term nature of intensive family preservation services complies with crisis intervention theory, the population served and the serviced needed call into doubt the appropriateness of a treatment model based largely on brief crisis intervention.
Understanding the relationship between neighbourhood poverty and specific types of child maltreatment
- Authors:
- DRAKE Brett, PANDEY Shanta
- Journal article citation:
- Child Abuse and Neglect, 20(11), November 1996, pp.1003-1018.
- Publisher:
- Elsevier
Examines the relationship between neighbourhood poverty in the USA and three different types of child maltreatment; neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse. Explores both rates of reporting and rates of substantiated reports across low, moderate, and high poverty areas. It uses 1990 USA Census data and Child Protective Service data to study the relationship. Results found that neighbourhood poverty is positively associated with all three forms of child maltreatment, but to different degrees. Of the three types of child maltreatment, child neglect is most powerfully associated with neighbourhood poverty status.