Does Fathers' Use of Services Affect Mothers' Reunification with Children in Foster Care? (WITHDRAWN)

Background and Purpose:

Social science literature suggests that when fathers are involved with their children, children benefit (Lamb, 2010). A small body of research focusing on the effects of father involvement in the child welfare arena has found that when fathers are identified by the agency or involved with services, the likelihood of reunification is increased (Bellamy, 2009; Burrus, Green, Worcel, Finigan & Furrer, 2012; Malm & Zielewski, 2009). While these studies suggest fathers play a positive role in reunification processes, the mechanism by which such involvement may affect reunification has not been determined. This study builds on the existing body of literature by testing whether fathers’ service use, controlling for family structure, influences mothers’ reunification likelihood.

Methods:

This quantitative observational study uses case file and administrative data on mothers of a random sample of 145 children removed from home due to maltreatment during a one year period in an urban jurisdiction. Family structure was measured with a five category measure capturing marital and residential status of parents. Fathers’ service use was measured with a dichotomous variable indicating whether a father made some use of ordered services. Reunificationwas measured with a dichotomous variable indicating the child was placed in the mother’s home during the observation period of up to 3 years. Hazard curves for reunification by family structures and fathers’ service use were tested for differences, and a multivariate survival analysis examined the effect of fathers’ service use on mothers’ hazard of reunification, controlling for family structure and ethnicity.

Results:

Fewer than half of the mothers reunified with their children. Mothers living with and married to the biological fathers of their children were more likely to reunify than mothers whose children had no biological father identified. In the multivariate model controlling for family structure, mothers were more likely to reunify when fathers used services. Family structure (married mothers compared to mothers with biological father of child not identified) remained marginally statistically significant, at p<.056.

Conclusions and Implications:

Results suggest that both family structure and fathers’ service use matters in mothers’ reunification with children placed in foster care. The recent trend of declining marriage rates in low-income families  (Sum, Khatiwada, McLaughlin & Palma, 2011) may be a cause of concern then in child welfare, and marriage-support or co-parenting classes could be a useful reunification service option. The finding that fathers’ service use has a positive effect on reunification independent of family structure suggests that non-residential fathers may be participating in services not in a competitive bid to gain custody, but rather to support the mother or improve their relationship with their child. Providing services to fathers would make sense then not just in contexts where the intent is to reunify the child with the father, but also in contexts where the focus is on reunification with the mother.