Friday, 14 January 2005 - 8:00 AM

This presentation is part of: Secondary Analysis of NSCAW: Effects of Social Supports, Special Caregiver Needs and Family Structure on the Well-being of Children Receivng In-home Child Welfare Services

The Relationship Between Ethnicity and Social Support: Does it Make a Difference in Child Welfare Outcomes?

The relationship between ethnicity and Social Support: Does it make a difference in child welfare outcomes?

Presenting Team Members: Jessica Strolin, Ona Belser, Julie Magnano, Michael Marks

Purpose: A new development in child protective services (CPS) has centered on ‘communities of responsibility,’ where child welfare agencies, community members and organizations collaborate to assure both child safety and family support. With this development, evaluating the quality and sufficiency of informal social support networks of caregivers known to CPS may emerge as a new standard in child welfare caseworker assessment. Although there are some studies investigating the impact of social support on child welfare outcomes, there is yet to be an understanding of the potential moderating effects of race/ethnicity on this relationship. This study attempts to bridge this gap utilizing a foundation from social isolation and ecological theories.

Methods: This study is a secondary analysis of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). The sub-sample of 4034 children derive from all children living with primary caregivers at Wave 1 of the survey. Variation of the Sarason and Duke measures of social support were used to operationalize quantitative and qualitative aspects of social supports. Ethnicity, a moderating variable, was categorized into Caucasian, African American, Hispanic and other. Indicators of subsequent CPS reports and out of home placements were the dependent variable. Chi square, and multi-variate regression techniques, including logistic and Poisson regression, were conducted to test hypotheses.

Results: The mean number of social supports in the sub sample as a whole was 19.2. At Wave 3 of the study 363 children were placed in out of home settings and 734 had a subsequent CPS report. Results show significant differences in the numbers of social supports of Hispanic and African American caregivers when compared to Caucasians, with African Americans having slightly more supports and Hispanics less. Consistent with the literature, we found that African American families, when controlling for poverty and previous reports, were significantly more likely to have an out of home placement than were Caucasian families. There were no report or placement effects found for other racial groups. Caucasians with high levels of social supports are approximately 50% less likely to be placed out of home than Caucasians with low social supports.

Implications for Practice: Reductions in government funding have resulted in a further decline of available formal resources and spending for families known to child welfare (Hecker, 1998). This study provides evidence that maximizing the social support networks of Caucasian families known to the child welfare system may significantly reduce the likelihood of out of home placement. Continued understanding of the usage of informal social supports among various ethnic groups and their current association with child welfare outcomes will be essential to reform efforts.

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