Sunday, 16 January 2005 - 8:45 AM

This presentation is part of: Outcomes of Child Welfare Services

Early Findings of the Multisite Evaluation of Foster Youth Services

This presentation details the findings to date of the Multisite Evaluation of Foster Youth Services. The principal source of data for the presentation is the initial interview with youth, an interview occurring at the beginning of service for the experimental group and at a comparable time for the control group. Also available are data provided by caseworkers and data from the state child welfare administrative data systems. The ninety minute baseline interview with youth (conducted with CAPI and CASI technology) provides rich information about the young person's life history, experiences with the child welfare system, and current functioning. The analysis will provide a thorough description of four samples (one from each of our sites) from what is often considered the most troubled sector of our nation's youth. Included in the description will be demographic characteristics, educational experiences, psychological and social functioning, risk behaviors, including alcohol and drug use and sexual activity, and an assessment of levels of preparation for adult living. The analysis will also include an examination of the services provided to both the experimental and control groups. We will present a beginning verification of the experimental conditions, determining the extent to which experimental and control cases have, in fact, received differing treatments. We will also assess the extent to which the intended service has been delivered to the experimental groups. Of particular interest will be a consideration of the issue of take-up of the services. It is expected that not all youth in the experimental group will actually receive the intended services, primarily (although not entirely) because of refusal to participate. We will assess the extent to which the programs are not taken up in each of our four sites, together with the reasons for the lack of utilization. We will go on to consider the implications of varying take-up rates for program implementation and for the evaluation. Take-up of less than 100% is expected in most social programs, sometimes considerably less than 100%, and its implications for program and research are often not thoroughly explored. We will suggest approaches to this issue based on experience in this and other evaluations.

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