Social Work Commons^™

Prosecutors Or Helpers: An Institutional Ethnography Of Child Protective Services Casework, Anna Maria Rockhill

Dissertations and Theses

Millions of families come into contact with child welfare every year (U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, 2020). The mission of child welfare is to strengthen the ability of families to care for their children and to protect children and provide aid, services, or referrals to families where maltreatment is said to have occurred (Congressional Research Services, 2020). The vast majority of the families who become involved with child welfare are multiply disadvantaged (e.g., Mersky et al., 2009; Sedlak et al., 2010; Testa & Smith, 2009) and child welfare is a key feature of the array of public supports …

A Typology Of Foster Home Quality Elements In Relation To Foster Youth Mental Health, Paul Sorenson

Dissertations and Theses

Foster care has been one of the primary interventions in society's efforts to address child maltreatment. The foster parents and foster homes follow a process of certification intended to ensure that maltreated children be placed in substitute care that supports and encourages positive outcomes. One of the outcomes of principle concern is mental health. Few studies have been conducted that explore the makeup of certified foster homes with respect to the cumulative impact of multiple indicators of quality on mental health outcomes of foster youth.

This study sought to identify a typology of foster homes based on theorized indicators of …

"We Had To Rely On Each Other": Voices Of Latinx Foster Youth With Experiences In Care With Siblings, Isabella B. Ginsberg

PSU McNair Scholars Online Journal

Relationships between members of sibling groups have been found to impact well-being for children who enter foster care (Herrick & Piccus, 2005). Being placed in stranger foster care is often challenging and can be traumatic with children reporting confusion, worry, and loss of identity and sense of belonging (Herrick & Piccus, 2005, Unrau et al, 2008). While there is some research that explores the experiences of siblings groups in foster care and others separately that examines Latinx children in foster care, there is very little information that looks into the potentially unique experiences of Latinx individuals who were in care …

The Economically Disadvantaged Speak: Exploring The Intersection Of Poverty, Race, Child Neglect And Racial Disproportionality In The Child Welfare System, Angela Gail Cause

Dissertations and Theses

The relationship between poverty and child maltreatment has long been addressed in the literature. Disproportionally, children, especially those of color, are more likely to live in poverty than adults. It has been established that the risk of child maltreatment increases the longer impoverishment is experienced. Thus, the likelihood that racial disproportionality may have negative impact upon the child welfare system is potentially increased. Much attention has been given to the overrepresentation of certain children of color within the child welfare system when cared to their representation within the general population. This study explores the intersection of poverty and race upon …

Physical And Emotional Sibling Violence And Child Welfare: A Critical Realist Exploratory Study, Katherine Elizabeth Winters

Dissertations and Theses

Sibling violence is a pervasive, yet poorly understood and substantially underreported phenomenon. Currently recognized as the most common form of intra-familial abuse, various estimates suggest that 30 percent or more of children in the general population experience severe acts of violence inflicted by a sibling each year.

Given that many young people in the child welfare system experience the family conditions associated with abusive sibling violence, recent publications have implored child welfare to embrace the notion that it is a form of child maltreatment. Practitioners and policymakers have yet to reach agreement on what constitutes physical or emotional abuse between …

Who Am I? Who Do You Think I Am? Stability Of Racial/Ethnic Self-Identification Among Youth In Foster Care And Concordance With Agency Categorization, Jessica Schmidt, Shanti Dubey, Larry Dalton, May Nelson, Junghee Lee, Molly Oberweiser Kennedy, Connie Kim-Gervey, Laurie E. Powers, Sarah Geenen, The Research Consortium To Increase The Success Of Youth In Foster Care

School of Social Work Faculty Publications and Presentations

While it has been well documented that racial and ethnic disparities exist for children of color in child welfare, the accuracy of the race and ethnicity information collected by agencies has not been examined, nor has the concordance of this information with youth self-report. This article addresses a major gap in the literature by examining 1) the racial and ethnic self-identification of youth in foster care, and the rate of agreement with child welfare and school categorizations; 2) the level of concordance between different agencies (school and child welfare); and 3) the stability of racial and ethnic self-identification among youth …

Research-To-Practice Brief: Promising Evidence That Early Head Start Can Prevent Child Maltreatment, Rachel Chazan-Cohen, Beth L. Green, Catherine Ayoub, Jessica Dym Bartlett, Adam Von Ende, Carrie Jeanne Furrer

Child Abuse & Neglect Prevention

This brief addresses two main questions in a sample of Early Head Start eligible children: 1) the number and type of maltreatment episodes and 2) the impact of Early Head Start on child and family involvement in the child welfare system. These findings are especially important given the lack of scalable and effective preventive interventions. In addition, they are also timely given the recent interest in fostering collaborations between early care and education programs and child welfare agencies, agencies responsible for overseeing child protection from maltreatment (OHS & ACYF, 2010; ACYF & OHS, 2011; ACYF & OCC, 2011). The current …

Family Connections Research, Oregon Child Welfare Partnership, Katharine Cahn

Child Welfare

Family Connections Oregon (FCO) was a three-year demonstration project funded by the Children’s Bureau in which a co-located coordinator provided a package of services - intensive family finding and engagement, family group conferencing, and follow-up - within the first 60 days of a child’s out-of-home placement. These practices are continuing in Oregon through a IV-E waiver demonstration project called Leveraging Intensive Family Engagement (LIFE).

Family Connections Research Capsules, Center For Improvement Of Child And Family Services

Child Welfare

Family Connections Oregon (FCO) was a three-year demonstration project funded by the Children’s Bureau in which a co-located coordinator provided a package of services - intensive family finding and engagement, family group conferencing, and follow-up - within the first 60 days of a child’s out-of-home placement. These practices are continuing in Oregon through a IV-E waiver demonstration project called Leveraging Intensive Family Engagement (LIFE).

The Research Capsules associated with this project are included in this record.

Family Group Conferencing Practice, Angela Rodgers, Katharine Cahn

Child Welfare

Oregon has long been known as a site for innovative family engagement practice. Multiple forms of family meetings have been implemented in Oregon over the years and many child welfare offices use some form of intensive efforts to find family for children in care. Beginning in the Fall 2012 and over the next three years, Oregon implemented a federally funded (Children's Bureau) demonstration project, Family Connections Oregon, to test a model intervention, to develop a supportive infrastructure for sustaining family connections practice, and to establish a family voice association at the policy level. These practices are continuing in Oregon through …

A Specialized Child Protective Service Unit, Paul O. Powers, Bonnie J. Vance

Dissertations and Theses

The North Portland Branch in Region 1 of the State of Oregon Children's Services Division had at the time of this study the only specialized Child Protective Service unit, where all protective service workers are under one supervisor, in that region. The supervisor and casework staff of the unit requested the study in the Spring of 1975. The purpose of the study was to provide a descriptive analysis of the unit 's time and effort on case activities. Through this analysis the research sought to give an overview of what is involved in Working with protective service cases and underscore …