Sunday, 16 January 2005 - 8:45 AM

This presentation is part of: Outcomes of Child Welfare Services

Predictors of Reunification in a Sample of Urban Out-of-Home-Care Cases

PURPOSE: To analyze factors associated with reunification in 494 cases of children placed in out-of-home care in an urban Midwestern county.

METHOD: Data were gathered from online assessments by workers and in-person or telephone interviews with parents. Both groups were surveyed within 30 days of case opening (Time 1) and again at closing or after one year if still open (Time 2). Cases were sampled within 30 days of initial placement from five geographic sites staffed by nonprofit contract vendors. Completion rates averaged 90% for workers and 66% for parents. In addition to data regarding service outcomes, surveys also gathered information on economic, social/psychological, and health characteristics of sample members.

RESULTS: About three-fourths of target children who left out-of-home care were reunified with their families, but two-thirds of sample members still remained in out-of-home placements as of the time data collection ceased. Multivariate analyses were conducted in which children’s discrete-time hazard for reunification was estimated using a piecewise linear-spline technique. Results indicate that self-reported parental neglect, severe psychological abuse, and poor overall parental functioning (as assessed by the case manager) were significantly associated with decreased likelihood for reunification. Of particular note was a finding that any episode of homelessness in the family within 12 months prior to placement decreased the hazard rate for reunification by almost half.

Findings from interviews with parents indicated that many struggled with exceedingly low household income, low labor-market participation, poor health, poor neighborhoods, heightened risk of depressive or anxiety disorders, and problems of alcohol or drug abuse. However, results from related questions in the worker surveys indicated that workers estimated far lower rates of such problems among both parents and children than were reported by parents themselves. Partly because many such service needs went unrecognized, parents at Time 2 also reported substantial numbers of lingering problems and needed services they had not received. This was true of both the parents themselves and the children that had been placed out of their home.

IMPLICATIONS: Results suggest that extreme poverty, and especially the related problems of homelessness and residential instability, must be given particular attention when reunification is the case plan. Also, methods for improving assessment and referral must be considered in view of meaningful gaps that apparently exist between actual and worker-identified problems on the part of children in out-of-home care and members of their families of origin.

See more of Outcomes of Child Welfare Services
See more of Oral and Poster

See more of Celebrating a Decade of SSWR (January 13 - 16, 2005)