It's about Time: Exploring the Relationship between Time Use and Outcomes for Children and Families

Background and Purpose

Over the past 30 years, child welfare researchers have been increasingly attentive to understanding the myriad factors that influence outcomes for children and families. Recently, discussion in this area has turned to decisions around time use – how much time to spend and how to use that time – to help explain variations in outcomes such as worker retention and permanency rates (Child Welfare Information Gateway Issue Brief, July 2016).

One of the overarching hypotheses associated with this work posits that workers who spend a higher proportion of their time in direct contact with children and families will produce better outcomes for the children and families they serve. This study speaks directly to this line of inquiry, exploring the relationship between workers’ time use – specifically, the proportion of time spent interacting directly with families – and permanency outcomes for children.

Methods

A total of 308 staff from across four regions in a large Southeastern state participated in a time use data collection effort using a framework and data collection plan (the Cost Calculator for Children’s Services) developed at the University of Loughborough. The culminating data collection activity was a broadly administered time use survey (TUS), for which a 100 percent response rate was achieved.

The specific hypothesis is that regions whose workforce reported the highest proportion of time spent in direct contact with families would demonstrate better permanency outcomes than regions whose workforce reported spending a smaller proportion of their time in direct contact with children and families.  Data from the TUS was analyzed to allow for a determination of the proportion of workers’ time spent in direct contact with families (as opposed to time spent on indirect casework activities).  A longitudinal data file derived from the state’s administrative data system was used to determine permanency outcomes during the same period as that reflected by the TUS (median duration and exits to reunification).

Results

Results from statistical analysis show that in the region where workers reported the highest proportion of time spent in direct contact with families, median duration was found to be shorter and the likelihood of reunification higher.  Further, in the region where workers reported the smallest proportion of time spent in direct contact with families during the initial permanency planning phase of casework (more than one standard deviation below the average across all four regions), the likelihood of a reunification exit was the smallest.

Conclusion and Implications

The results of this study suggest that caseworker’s time use may affect what happens to children placed away from home.  Although the findings are intuitively appealing, the fact is we know too little about time use by caseworkers and its effect on outcomes.  These results suggest that deeper explorations of time use by child welfare states represent an important new area for research, especially in an era that places greater emphasis on evidence-based interventions.  Evidence-based interventions place time use demands on caseworkers and these results suggest ways in which those opportunity costs might be assessed.