Healthy Families America effectiveness: a comprehensive review of outcomes

This paper reviews 33 evaluations of Healthy Families America sites, with emphasis on 15 studies that include a control or comparison group. Outcome domains include child health and development, maternal life course, parenting, and child maltreatment. Parenting outcomes (e.g., parenting attitudes) show the most consistent positive impacts. Mixed results in other domains indicate the need for in-depth research to identify factors associated with better outcomes. Several factors that may contribute to differences in outcomes are discussed, including site implementation and quality, differences in family risk levels, and recent augmentations to program design. The paper also highlights two large-scale evaluations, one community-wide (Hampton, Virginia) and one statewide (Indiana), to illustrate exemplary evaluation approaches found in HFA research. Overall, HFA's continuing evolution has been positively impacted by researcher-practitioner partnerships.     

Trauma-Informed Resource Parent Training and the Impact on Knowledge Acquisition,Parenting Self-Efficacy,and Child Behavior Outcomes: A Pilot of the Resource Parent Curriculum Parent Management Training (RPC+)

This pilot study illustrates one state’s development, implementation, and outcomes of a trauma-informed curriculum called the Resource Parent Curriculum + CARE (RPC+). The RPC+ is an intensive co-trained curriculum intended to be trauma-informed and skills-based focused on ameliorating child behavior problems that are frequently the source of parenting stress and placement instability. This article will provide a literature review of child and caregiver needs, describe the training curriculum, and present the results from the pilot implementation of the curriculum. Preliminary findings from this study show participants of the RPC+ show positive changes pre- to post-training on a number of dimensions that have been correlated with placement stability for children including knowledge of trauma, parenting self-efficacy, and child behavior outcomes.     

Improving Father Involvement in Child Welfare Practice and Research: Conceptual Considerations from the Social Science Literature

The positive benefits to children of their fathers' involvement in their lives have been well documented in the social science literature. This article reviews related child welfare literature and argues that several important concepts informing father involvement research in the social sciences—the significance of the parents' relationship, the potentially dangerous behaviors of fathers, and emerging trends in low-income families—need to be incorporated into work on father involvement in the child welfare context, in order to maximize the effectiveness of involvement efforts as well as the potential benefits to children. Implications for child welfare practice include the need for intensive involvement efforts, attention to fathers' progress in treatment, services to strengthen parental relationships and improve coparenting, and expansion of service eligibility to all those who play parental roles in children's lives. Implications for research include the need for studies examining the different kinds of fathers in child welfare households, how parental dynamics influence child and parent outcomes, and the influence fathers' problems may have in moderating the effects of their involvement on children.     

Comparing social,emotional, and behavioral health risks among youth attending public versus parochial schools

Parochial schools are assumed to provide better social and academic experiences; however, few studies account for selection bias when comparing with public schools. This study contrasted public versus parochial schools using propensity score matching across a range of outcomes (e.g., perceptions of school, emotional symptoms, substance use, bullying). Using a sample of 58 public and 5 parochial high schools, the nonmatched analyses suggested a significant advantage for parochial schools students (e.g., better on 23 of 32 indicators). However, the propensity score matched analyses revealed nine differences (e.g., weapon carrying, smoking), two of which (i.e., stress and cyberbullying) favored public schools. While at first glance parochial schools generally appear to be healthier and safer learning environments, accounting for selection bias, the gap was narrowed. Students in parochial schools may struggle with issues related to social, emotional, and behavioral health risk, and thus prevention programs should also be implemented in these settings.     

Barriers to Cross-Systems Collaboration in Child Welfare,Education, and the Courts: Supporting Educational Well-being of Youth in Care Through Systems Change

Cross-systems collaboration between child welfare, education, and the courts benefits when challenges and priorities are identified early. We measured perceptions of educational stability in foster youth with a statewide survey of 1,603 professionals in education, child welfare, and the courts. Results reveal commonalities among perceived challenges to collaboration across systems (e.g., multiple foster care placements; school changes) and differences in perceived importance or significance of a given issue by professional group. Results guided collaborative work in Kansas and may assist other states seeking strategies that inform cross-systems collaboration to improve educational well-being for youth in foster care.     

The Influence of Nondisclosure on the Mental Health of Urban African-American Adolescents Exposed to Community Violence

African-American youth residing in urban poverty have been shown to be at increased risk for exposure to violence and internalizing symptoms, but there has been little investigation of moderating processes that might attenuate or exacerbate this association. The current study examined nondisclosure as a possible moderator of the association between community violence and internalizing symptoms with a sample of 152 low-income urban African-American early adolescents using hierarchical regression analyses. Results revealed that nondisclosure for relationship reasons (e.g., adults could not be trusted to provide needed support) moderated the association between exposure to community violence and internalizing symptoms. Unexpectedly, however, results of simple effects analyses revealed a stronger association between exposure to violence and internalizing symptoms for youth who disclosed more to adults. Although unexpected, this pattern builds upon prior research indicating that adult–child relationships are compromised within the context of urban poverty and that protective factors may lose their power under conditions of extreme stress.     

Educational Services for Children in Foster Care

ABSTRACT

Most literature on the education of foster youth focuses on their individual outcomes and characteristics. A small body of literature documents a lack of collaboration between the child welfare and education systems. This study explores commonalities and differences in perspectives between child welfare and education system stakeholders. It draws on findings from a multi-county exploratory study on educational services for foster youth. The findings in this study identify several systemic barriers including placement instability within the child welfare system, limited financial resources of schools, and poor inter-agency communication. In addition, differences in the perceptions of school and child welfare agency personnel regarding the needs of foster children in school, problems encountered in enrolling children in school, and the role and motives of each agency in addressing these needs and problems are identified. These differences point to both the challenges involved in improving communications and collaboration between the two systems, as well as the opportunities to improve educational services to children in foster care.     

Absorptive capacity in child welfare: measurement challenges and item development

Promoting successful implementation of evidence-based practices within child welfare agencies necessitates accurately measuring absorptive capacity (i.e., the ability to acquire, assimilate, transform, and exploit knowledge) through valid and reliable assessment. However, a measurement tool does not exist for child welfare agencies. As such, this exploratory study identified existing measures and items relevant to absorptive capacity in child welfare. The study resulted in 12 identified measures, comprising 98 applicable items. This research is a first step toward creating a measure for use in child welfare settings that will guide practice and administration decisions through valid measurement.     

Racial Disparities in Service Referrals for Families in the Child Welfare System

Among families in the child welfare system, family reunification depends largely upon the services to which families are referred. This study examines whether race/ethnicity influences the number and types of services to which families are referred. Findings suggest that compared to African American families, Hispanic families were more often referred to psychosocial services (e.g., mental health) than basic needs (e.g., housing). These findings indicate a need to reduce service referral disparities between ethnic groups.     

An Examination of the Reliability,Data Screening Procedures,and Extreme Response Patterns for the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey

Abstract

This article explores psychometric characteristics of the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance Survey (YRBS), one of the most widely used instruments to assess the prevalence of violent and other high-risk behaviors in secondary school settings. Response patterns were analyzed for a subset of 414 youths who indicated that they had carried a weapon to school six or more times during the preceding 30 days, and were compared to a matched sample of youths randomly selected from the 13,610 participants in the 2001 national administration of the YRBS. Results indicated that extreme responders to the weapon-carrying item were considerably more likely than their counterparts to respond in an extreme fashion to all YRBS items, including risk items pertaining to school (e.g., physical fights on school property) and outside school (e.g., alcohol consumption) factors, as well as positive health behaviors (e.g., healthy eating habits). Overall, the results suggest an ex-treme response bias among some participants that may impact the validity of the YRBS instrument. More specifically, presence of this response bias may inflate estimates of the prevalence of school violence and related concerns. These findings are discussed in light of the need to carefully examine individual response patterns on future administrations of the YRBS in an effort to ensure maximum instrument utility.     

School Violence in Children and Adolescents

Abstract

This article reviews school violence prevention programs that were published between the years of 1990 and 1999. All the interventions fitting inclusion criteria involved being implemented in a school setting, using a control group, and including a quantitative methodology. Effect sizes were calculated for the final sixteen articles that were reviewed in the meta-analysis. A process of inspection was used in order to come up with treatment characteristics most common to each prevention program. Each study was thus described according to six categories: theoretical base, setting, age group, leader training, duration, and random assignment. Four studies resulted with strong effect sizes; however, a regression analysis was not conducted due to inadequate sample size. A review of the literature suggested that program impact could be significantly affected by the use of cognitive-behavioral strategies, multi-setting atmosphere, and primary (elementary school) prevention. In addition, intuitive support (common knowledge in the social science field) indicated that a qualified program leader and longer length of program could also contribute to the influence of a program. Future researchers are encouraged to use a more comprehensive literature review (e.g., past 20 years) in terms of conducting meta-anal-yses in order to provide a larger sample size adequate enough to see the true effects of different intervention components on outcomes (regression analysis; i.e., additive component effects).     

Strengthening Public-Private Partnerships in State Child Welfare Systems: Results of a Multi-State Strategic Planning Process

Dramatic growth in health and human service contracting over the past two decades has increased the need for managerial competency in the development and sustainment of effective cross-sector partnerships. Although the quality of relations between partnering agencies can affect client outcomes, few macro-level interventions for strengthening cross-sector partnerships have been described or tested in the literature. This article describes a facilitated, strategic planning process implemented in five different states and presents pre-post test results of its effect on different factors known to affect partnership success. Implications for child welfare administrative practice and research are discussed.     

Aging Out of Foster Care: Homelessness,Post-Secondary Education,and Employment

Research has shown that youth aging out of the foster care system experience an increased risk for several adverse adult outcomes (e.g., homelessness, unemployment, low educational attainment). Yet, fewer studies have examined the impact of homelessness on adult outcomes. The current study uses National Youth in Transition Database (NYTD) to examine the associations between homelessness and two outcomes, post-secondary education and employment status, for transition-aged foster youth (N = 4,235). This study found that youth who experienced homelessness between 19 and 21 years were less likely to have post-secondary education or full-time employment, controlling for individual and foster care characteristics.     

Effective Implementation Strategies of Differential Response in Child Welfare: A Comparative Case Analysis

Differential response is a growing approach in child welfare that aims to maintain children safely in their homes when possible. This study examined how the implementation of differential response varies between counties with improved child safety outcomes compared to counties with poorer outcomes. Data was collected from nine counties through semi-structured focus groups with workers and interviews with supervisors. Results indicated that counties with improved outcomes had integrated the following implementation strategies: use of comprehensive assessment protocols; integrated supervisory support and on-going coaching of effective practices; and increased mobilization of resources, including enduring supports for parents, supports to help families meet basic needs and culturally responsive services for families.     

A Preventive Intervention with Children of Alcoholics

Summary

Children of alcoholics have been identified as a population at high risk for the development of a large number of psycho-social and behavioral problems (e.g., alcoholism and difficulty in establishing relationships). The literature on etiology, mediating and moderating variables, and resiliency with respect to these developmental processes has implications for the development of prevention strategies. A group preventive intervention was designed to facilitate the development of a variety of coping strategies and social skills, as well as to provide information and support to self-referred children of alcoholics. Eighteen sessions were held at middle schools. Comparison of pre and post data (using a waiting control group design) indicated positive effects in terms of several psychosocial variables.     

Helping organizations help others: organization development as a facilitator of social change

This article explores organization development (OD) interventions and their likelihood of increasing social change outcomes in public agencies. The central argument of this work is that public and nonprofit organizations can deliver better social outcomes by systematically engaging in OD interventions. An in-depth survey was conducted in 3 agencies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the end of the gubernatorial administration of Tom Ridge (1995-2002). During his administration, Governor Ridge led the agencies of Pennsylvania government through a large-scale change effort to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of service delivery to the citizens of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. The change effort was a remarkable event for the Commonwealth because no other governor in the history of the state had attempted to conceptualize and deliver a comprehensive large-scale change management initiative. The successes and setbacks served as a fertile context to shed light on the following research question: Do OD interventions increase the likelihood that public organizations will deliver better social outcomes? This question is important in that public organizations may need to engage in organization development activities to improve their internal operations, which in turn may help them provide exemplary social outcomes to those whom they serve. In short, organization development interventions might allow public organizations to help themselves to help others.     

A systems analysis of youth in acute and subacute therapeutic residential care

The Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has reduced the use of therapeutic residential care (e.g., group homes, residential treatment centers) for youth placed in child welfare. Youth in acute or subacute congregate care for 30 or more days without Medicaid now are of particular interest. This is a longer-term psychiatric program, typically 3 to 6 months. The project team conducted a systems analysis to determine the specific characteristics and levels of need for 42 youth so that DCFS can more effectively serve these youth in the least restrictive form of treatment possible.     

Kinship Guardianship,Adoption, and Foster Care: Outcomes from a U.S. National Sample

Using data from a national longitudinal survey of children referred to child protective services (NSCAW II), this article compares behavioral, child/caregiver relationship, and school performance outcomes for children residing in kinship and nonkinship settings. Up to three waves of data were gathered for each child. The analysis sample comprises 4,202 children and 10,881 observations. Two sets of regressions were completed. One represents family living settings using child-mean centered predictors while the other does so with dummy-coded variables. An advantage of the child-mean centered predictors is that omitted variables that vary between children but that are constant within each child do not introduce bias. The regressions using dummy-coded variables evidenced, on balance, somewhat better outcomes for kinship settings than for nonkinship ones. Good outcomes in these regressions were found for kinship adoption. Results with the child-mean centered regressions were more equivocal, though perhaps still favored kinship settings. Limitations and policy recommendations conclude the article.