Browsing by Subject "Child welfare"
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Item Adoptive Parent Perspectives on Placing an Intercountry Adopted Child with Disabilities in Out of Home Care(2015-05) Kim, KendraIn the past seven decades over 400,000 children born outside the U.S. have been adopted to U.S. citizens through intercountry adoption (U.S. State Department 2014, Evan B. Donaldson, 2002). Many of these children experienced trauma, malnutrition, abuse, neglect, prenatal exposure to alcohol and other drugs, and institutionalization and nearly eight percent of intercountry adopted children under 18 in 2010 had at least one intellectual, developmental or mental health disability as according to the U.S. Census (Kreider, 2014). Some adoptive parents choose to place their child in out of home placement including residential treatment center, foster care, group home, or even another adoptive home as a result of their child�s disability. Research on the decision-making process of adoptive parents that placed their intercountry child either temporarily or permanently in out of home care does not exist in the current literature. Using a qualitative, constructivist grounded theory methodology (Charmaz, 2006) perspectives of adoptive parents who placed an intercountry adopted child in out of home placement due to the child�s disability were explored. Nineteen parents representing 16 families living in West Coast, Midwest and Mid-Atlantic states participated in this study. Findings reveal that adoptive parents begin the intercountry adoption process with specific constructions about disability and intercountry adoption that impact the choices the parents make regarding the reasons they adopt, the services they choose (including out of home placements), and whether or not they consider dissolving their adoption. Additionally, adoptive parents experienced financial, social, relational and personal costs related to the choices they made in parenting their children and respond by making behavioral or emotional changes in their approach to parenting, leading them to re-define their concept of disability and adoption. These findings from this study highlight the importance of developing training programs for both adoption agency staff as well as prospective adoptive parents on adopting children with intellectual, developmental and mental health disabilities. Policy recommendations include requiring an increased minimum standard of training for adoption agency staff and prospective adoptive parents on disability content, better data collection on intercountry adoptive families, as well as a shift toward child welfare as the standard focus of intercountry adoption policy.Item CYFC Consortium Connections, Spring 1992, Vol 1, No 2(Children, Youth & Family Consortium, 1992) Children, Youth & Family ConsortiumItem Disentangling over-representation of parents with disabilities in the child welfare system: Exploring child maltreatment risk factors of parents with disabilities(Children and Youth Services Review, 2014-12) Lightfoot, Elizabeth; Slayter, ElspethThe study explores the risk factors for child maltreatment and self-reported child maltreatment among a population-based sample of parents with disabilities. Drawing on a nationally-representative, population-based data file that oversampled people of color, income-adjusted odds ratio tests were conducted to establish population differences among parents with and without limitations in activities of daily living (ADLs). Results suggest that parents with disabilities were more likely to report many of the risk factors associated with child maltreatment than parents without disabilities, including witnessing interpersonal violence as a child; experiencing violence, neglect or a foster care stay as a child; mood or substance use disorders; and engaging in or receiving interpersonal violence as an adult. Before controlling for income, parents with disabilities had only a negligibly higher rate of engaging in violence against their children. After controlling for income, parents with disabilities were 2.5 times more likely to engage in violence against their children. Parents with disabilities who did engage in violence against their children had greater amounts of some of the child maltreatment risk factors in comparison to parents with disabilities who did not engage in violence, particularly their own childhood experiences of maltreatment, witnessing of interpersonal violence as a child, childhood stays in foster care, and experiences with interpersonal violence as an adult. Findings add to the understanding of the risk factors for child maltreatment that are related to the collateral effects of having a disability, and through the use of income-adjusted data, help disentangle why parents with disabilities are over-represented in the child welfare system. The findings highlight the need for the child welfare system to increase its disability competence in working with both children and parents with disabilities.Item An Epidemiologic Analysis of Intergenerational Child Maltreatment(2017-05) Galos, DylanAbstract Objective: Child maltreatment is a serious social and population health problem in the United States, with an estimated incidence proportion of 9.2 victims per 1,000 children. Prior research identifies experiencing maltreatment as a risk factor for perpetrating maltreatment, also called intergenerational child maltreatment (IMT). Many prior studies of IMT have been conducted in individualistic methodologies that are well-suited to describe nuanced mechanisms and individual treatments. A public health approach, focused on surveillance, risk factor identification, and intervention development and implementation can inform this literature by examining IMT as a population health issue. This dissertation used 15 years of linked administrative records from child protection and public schools to examine: 1) the incidence of IMT; 2) the association between IMT and academic achievement, and; 3) the accuracy of offenders’ self-report of maltreatment when compared to their prior CPS records. Methods: In Manuscript 1, child protection records (N = 8,701) from 2000 through 2014 were linked to public school records for demographics. The transmission probability of IMT was estimated by measuring the proportion of childhood victims in accepted CPS reports who appeared as offenders when they became adults. Adjusted transmission probabilities were estimated using log-binomial regression. In Manuscript 2, statewide records from child protection (years 2000 – 2014) and public schools (academic years 2011 – 2012, 2012 – 2013, and 2013 – 2014) were linked to create a dataset of students in third to eighth grades who had contact with both child protection and public school systems. The association between caregivers’ history of maltreatment and the child’s academic achievement (i.e., test proficiency, school mobility, and school attendance) was estimated by using multilevel logit and ordered logit regression. Finally, in Manuscript 3, the self-report of 253 offenders with prior CPS contact as potential victims were compared to their records. Misclassification in reporting was defined using the proportion of offenders in households where no offender reported a history of maltreatment who had prior CPS contact. Associations with demographic variables and maltreatment-related risk factors were measured using chi-square statistics. Results: In Manuscript 1, the total transmission probability among all groups was 11.26%. Transmission probabilities were highest among those who experienced multiple forms of maltreatment and were lowest among those who experienced sexual abuse. Transmission probabilities were lowest among Asians and highest among Native American/American Indian subjects. Prior substantiation and out-of-home placement were both associated with higher IMT probabilities. In Manuscript 2, a caregiver’s history of maltreatment had no association with test proficiency, school mobility or attendance after adjustment for school-related covariates, demographics and maltreatment-related risk factors. Regardless of caregivers’ history, there were differences by maltreatment type experienced by the child for reading proficiency, science proficiency, mobility and attendance. In Manuscript 3, 54.55% of caregivers with prior contact reported never experiencing abuse. Proportions with misclassification differed by offender’s gender, age, relationship to the victim, and prior experience of out of home placement. Substantiation and type of maltreatment experienced were not associated with misclassification. Conclusions: This dissertation offers three major contributions to the existing literature. First, it examined IMT as a population health issue, unprecedented in Minnesota. Second, it examined the intergenerational association between maltreatment and education in late childhood, a developmental stage with high potential for intervention. Last, it highlighted the methodological potential of state-level administrative records for surveillance, as well as the limitations in capability of administrative records for population health research on IMT.Item From investigating to engaging families: examining the impact and implementation of family assessment response on racial equity in child welfare(2013-08) Semanchin Jones, Annette MarieAlmost half the states in the U.S. have implemented a differential response approach in child welfare with the goal of keeping children safer by better engaging and supporting families. The differential response track voluntarily engages low to moderate risk families by setting aside fault-finding. To explore yet unanswered questions about this growing approach, this study used sequential mixed methods to examine the implementation and impact of Minnesota's approach, called Family Assessment response. The first phase of the study used logistic regression to analyze administrative child welfare data for cases screened in between 2003 to 2010, to explore whether race was a predictor in these decision points: pathway assignment to either traditional investigation (TI) or family assessment (FA) response; switching pathway assignment from FA to TI; removal of children to out-of-home placement; and re-reporting to child protection within 12 months of case closing. The second phase used a comparative case study approach to explore implementation strategies that might help explain differences in outcomes by county. Data collection for this phase included semi-structured focus groups with workers and interviews with supervisors in the nine counties in the sample. Racial equity outcomes were mixed. Findings indicated that when controlling for poverty and other risk factors, African American, Native American and Multiracial children were less likely to be assigned to FA compared to Caucasian children for some, but not all years in the study timeframe. Disparities around pathway switch from family assessment to traditional investigation completely diminished over time. This study also found several key implementation strategies that were common in counties with positive outcomes, including effective integration of multiple family engaging and safety focused approaches; strong team cohesion to build capacity in family assessment; and a focus on engaging enduring supports for families. Findings of this study underscore the need for jurisdictions to have culturally responsive and financially-related resources to support families, with particular focus on continued resources after the pilot phase of implementation. This study also highlights the importance of applying a racial equity lens in examining new social policies and practices to ensure equitable implementation for all children and families.Item Reunification and Behavioral Problems of American Indian Children in the Child Welfare System(2016-05) Landers, AshleyThe two studies presented in this dissertation examine outcomes for American Indian children in the child welfare system (Study 1: n = 456, Study 2: n = 3,498). Both studies are grounded in Patterson’s (2002) Family Adjustment and Adaptation Response theory and utilize baseline, 18-month, and 36-month follow-up data from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being. Each study used propensity score matching and multiple logistic regression, although Study 1 incorporated the Long-Term Foster Care sample and Study 2 used the Child Protective Services sample. Study 1’s purpose was estimating the effect of race on reunification among American Indian, African American, and Caucasian children ages 2 – 15 years. Study findings suggested that reunification did not differ based on race after balancing on family demands and capabilities. Study 2’s purpose was estimating the effect of race on the probability of displaying internalizing and externalizing behavioral problems among American Indian, African American, and Caucasian children ages 2 – 16. years Findings revealed that American Indian children had an increased probability for displaying clinically significant externalizing behavior problems at 36-month follow-up. These studies suggest that, although descriptively American Indian children are less likely to reunify and are more likely to display clinically significant behavioral problems, such findings are not explained by race alone after balancing family demands and capabilities.Item Understanding social and cultural differences in perceiving child maltreatment.(2009-06) Shanalingigwa, Oswald AbelAbstract This cross-cultural study sought to examine how parents from other parts of the world and who differ in culture, evaluate practices that are, or might be, harmful to children. The objective was to examine respondents' judgment of acceptability of the behavior, perception of severity and their attitudes toward reporting such situations. The study focused on thirteen (13) categories of child maltreatment as evaluated by parents born and raised on the African continent and parents born and/or raised in the United States. The responses of the two groups of parents were then compared and contrasted with the responses of child welfare professionals in Minnesota. This study is, in part, a replication of Giovannoni and Becerra's [Giovannoni, J., & Becerra, R. 1979 research on defining child maltreatment, Defining child abuse: New York: The Free Press]. It expands Giovannoni & Becerra's 1979 study, which examined how health and welfare professionals defined child abuse and neglect and rated the severity of specific instances of maltreatment. Participants for the study were drawn from the metropolitan area of St. Paul, Minnesota. Data for the cross-cultural study were collected by means of a self-administered vignette questionnaire that was distributed to the three key groups: parents born and raised on the African continent, parents born or raised in the U.S., and child welfare professionals in Anoka and Washington Counties in Minnesota. From the various findings of this study it is established that respondents' culture contributed significantly to the perceptions of child maltreatment situations. Respondents differed in their definitions, perception of seriousness and reporting potential abusive situations. Implications of the findings are discussed.