Is higher placement stability in kinship foster care by virtue or design?

Prior research has repeatedly documented higher placement stability for children who enter kinship care rather than non-relative foster care. However, little is known about why, and under what circumstances, kinship care is more stable. This study uses longitudinal state administrative data to explore possible explanations. Results suggest that, while children in non-relative foster care are indeed at higher risk of any placement move than their peers in kinship care, this appears to be partly driven by child selection factors and policy preferences for kinship care. That is, the gap is not explained primarily by different rates of caregiver-requested moves. However, the gap was sizably smaller among select high-risk subgroups of foster children, suggesting that higher stability in kinship care may be partly explained by differences in the characteristics of children entering kinship care (versus non-relative foster care). Moreover, a large portion of the gap is explained by children in non-relative care being moved into kinship care; a move that is likely the result of policy preferences for kinship care rather than a defect in the initial placement. In sum, these results suggest that kinship care provides only a limited stability advantage, and the reasons for that advantage are not well understood.     

Are sexual minority youth overrepresented in foster care,child welfare,and out-of-home placement? Findings from nationally representative data

BackgroundPreliminary evidence suggests that sexual minority (e.g. lesbian, gay, bisexual, and same-sex attracted) youth are overrepresented in child welfare services. Yet, no study to date has been able to test this hypothesis with national data.ObjectiveUsing a two-study design, we test whether sexual minority youth are overrepresented in child welfare, foster care, and out-of-home placement using nationally representative data from the United States.Participants and settingStudy 1 data are from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (n = 14,154; Mean age = 15.4). Study 2 data are from wave three of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being II (n = 1309; Mean age = 15.0).MethodsFor Study 1, we use adjusted logistic regression models to test differences in lifetime foster care involvement between sexual minority and heterosexual youth. In Study 2, we calculate a Disproportionality Representation Index (DRI) – a ratio of sample prevalence relative to the general population – to estimate whether sexual minority youth were overrepresented in child welfare and out-of-home care.ResultsStudy 1 results indicate that sexual minority youth are nearly 2.5 times as likely as heterosexual youth to experience foster care placement (aOR = 2.43, 95% CI 1.40, 4.21, p = .002). Results from Study 2 show that sexual minority youth were largely overrepresented in child welfare services (DRI = 1.95–2.48) and out-of-home placement (DRI = 3.69–4.68).ConclusionsFindings are the first to demonstrate sexual minority youth’s overrepresentation in child welfare, foster care, and out-of-home placement using nationally representative data and emphasizes the need for focused research on sexual minority youth involved in the child welfare system.     

Placement disruption in foster care: Children’s behavior,foster parent support,and parenting experiences

BackgroundThe majority of children in foster care 24 months or longer experience three or more placements. Children’s behavior problems are a primary contributor to multiple moves, but little is known about how behavior problems and other stressors lead to disruptions. This study focused on foster parents’ experiences of parenting a child at risk for moves using the determinants of parenting model (Belsky, 1984) to identify potential correlates of difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.ObjectiveTo identify factors associated with difficult parenting experiences and placement disruption.ParticipantsFoster parents (N = 139) caring for children age 8–14 in long term foster care with a history of two or more moves were randomly selected in a large Midwestern state in the U.S.MethodsParticipants completed a 90-minute telephone interview (86% response rate). Placement moves were tracked prospectively for two years. Parenting experiences and disruption were analyzed using multiple and logistic regression.ResultsResults support aspects of the determinants of parenting model. Behavior problems, children’s risk to others, low support, and stress were significantly associated with more difficult parenting experiences (βs = .28, .22, .18, .19, respectively, ps < .05), and more difficult parenting experiences strongly predicted placement disruption (p < .01). Risk to others also predicted disruption before including parenting experiences, with this association becoming nonsignificant after including parenting experiences. Unexpectedly, African American foster parents had a higher risk for disruption, despite more positive parenting experiences.ConclusionsThese findings support attending to foster parents’ parenting experiences, children’s risk to others, social support and stress to better support placements of children at risk for disruption.     

Predictors of foster parents’ stress and associations to sensitivity in the first year after placement

In Germany, almost 70 000 children are living in foster families (Statistisches Bundesamt, 2016). Many foster children show mental health problems as they were exposed to an accumulation of risk factors. Hence, foster parents are often faced with challenging parenting situations. The current study focuses on the predictors of foster parents’ stress and examines longitudinally whether parenting stress is associated with foster parents’ sensitivity. The sample consisted of 55 children (aged from 1 to 6 years) and their foster caregivers. Foster parents’ sensitivity was observed during home visits. Caregiver reports were used to assess parenting stress (Parenting Stress Index) as well as foster children’s externalizing behavior problems (Child Behavior Checklist). For main caregivers’ stress at the beginning of placement, regression analyses revealed both, foster children’s externalizing problems as well as partners’ stress as predictive. For main caregivers’ stress one year after, only initial parenting stress and partners’ stress were predictive. Foster parents’ sensitivity was correlated with their parenting stress one year after placement. Regression analyses revealed no longitudinal effects of initial parenting stress on overall sensitivity. However, supportive presence was predicted by initial supportive presence and by the interaction between parenting stress and children’s externalizing problems at placement. The findings highlight the role of the partner in experiencing parenting stress when taking care of a foster child. Furthermore, they emphasize that foster parents who care for children with behavior problems need adequate support that can buffer initial parenting stress and thereby promote sensitive caregiving.     

Who Studies Abroad? Evidence from France and Italy

This article uses data from representative samples of university students in France and Italy in an attempt to investigate the determinants of participation in foreign exchange programmes. Empirical results indicate that selection into these programmes is mainly driven by student's academic and foreign language skills. On the other hand, parents' occupation does not seem to have any significant effect on the probability of studying abroad.     

Does poor school performance cause later psychosocial problems among children in foster care? Evidence from national longitudinal registry data

Research has shown that children in foster care are a high-risk group for adverse economic, social and health related outcomes in young adulthood. Children's poor school performance has been identified as a major risk factor for these poor later life outcomes. Aiming to support the design of effective intervention strategies, this study examines the hypothesized causal effect of foster children's poor school performance on subsequent psychosocial problems, here conceptualized as economic hardship, illicit drug use, and mental health problems, in young adulthood. Using the potential outcomes approach, longitudinal register data on more than 7500 Swedish foster children born 1973–1978 were analyzed by means of doubly robust treatment-effect estimators. The results show that poor school performance has a negative impact on later psychosocial problems net of observed background attributes and potential selection on unobservables, suggesting that the estimated effects allow for causal interpretations. Promotion of school performance may thus be a viable intervention path for policymakers and practitioners interested in improving foster children's overall life chances.     

The impact of changing neighborhoods,switching schools,and experiencing relationship disruption on children’s adjustment to a new placement in foster care

When children enter a new foster care placement they may experience several different transitions. Not only will a child move in with a new family, he or she may move to a different neighborhood, change schools, lose contact with old friends, be placed apart from one or more siblings, and have limited contact with his or her biological parents. The current study examined the impact of these transitions on foster children’s adjustment to a new placement in out-of-home care. The sample consisted of 152 youth ages 6–17.5 who participated in the second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II) study and who were residing with relative or non-relative foster families at the time of the Wave I interview. During the Wave I interview, youth were asked to report on the types of transitions they experienced when they moved into their current placement. Linear and Poisson regressions were used to estimate the effect of the transitions on youths’ relationships with their new families, mental health, relationships with peers at school, and school engagement. The results showed that youth whose biological mothers contacted them more than once a month had more symptoms of mental health problems than youth who had less contact with their biological mothers. In contrast, changing schools had a positive impact on youths’ mental health, and youth who were separated from siblings were more likely to get along well with their school peers. Implications for improving youth’s adjustment to new foster care placements are discussed.     

Does education foster trust? Evidence from compulsory schooling reform in the UK

Although many studies document that education and trust are positively correlated, few studies examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect. This paper fills in the gap with data from the British Social Attitudes Survey. Firstly, using the OLS method, this paper finds that education and the three measures of trust—trust in people, trust in politicians, and trust in government—are all positively and significantly correlated. Secondly, to examine whether this correlation represents a causal effect, this paper exploits exogenous variation in educational attainment induced by the compulsory schooling reform in 1972. The regression discontinuity estimates suggest that the effects of education on the three measures of trust are all small and statistically insignificant. The findings imply that the OLS estimates may suffer from omitted variable bias and the effects of education on trust may be small.     

Can e-books foster child language? Meta-analysis on the effectiveness of e-book interventions in early childhood education and care

Language abilities in the early years are a strong predictor of children's success in school. However, a considerable number of children enter school with poor language skills. Therefore, one of the most important but also challenging mandates of early childhood education and care [ECEC] is to promote these skills before school enrolment. Meta-analytic evidence suggests that shared book reading is a valuable tool to narrow this gap in the early years. In the digital age, e-books might offer new opportunities to foster language development in ECEC. This meta-analysis investigates the effectiveness of e-book interventions in comparison to regular childcare and to shared print book reading in classrooms. The systematic search, examining studies from 2000 to 2018, was carried out by two independent reviewers. A random-effect model was used to aggregate findings. Altogether, 17 studies with 30 different e-book treatments were included. Children benefited significantly more from the e-book interventions compared to regular childcare (g = 0.85). Activities with e-books were also ahead of print storybook reading in ECEC (g = 0.45). The effectiveness was mainly moderated by story repetition, number of sessions, and embeddedness in the classroom. E-books were primarily researcher-developed and included congruent functions to foster language development. Implications for practice, research and app development are discussed.     

Who is missing from higher education in New Zealand?

There is disagreement in the literature regarding the influence of social and cultural factors on the propensity for young people to undertake higher education. This study draws upon a national data set of over 45,000 young people to assesses their propensity to progress to bachelor level study, while controlling for their ethnic backgrounds, their socio‐economic status (as measured by the decile of the last secondary school they attended), their gender, and their school achievement. The results are discussed in light of recent policy developments designed to ensure that access to bachelor‐level study is not closed to under‐represented groups.     

Who is caring for our most vulnerable children? The motivation to foster in child welfare

Objective: Responding to the need for more foster families to provide care for increasing numbers of children coming into care, this study was designed to understand the motivations and needs of foster parents in order to improve recruitment and retention. To meet this goal, the study identified characteristics of current foster families, performed a factor analysis on the Foster Parent Satisfaction Survey (FPSS) (Denby, R. W., Rindfleisch, N., & Bean, G. 1999). Predictors of foster parent's satisfaction and intent to continue to foster were identified, and the results were used to differentiate between foster parents who did and did not consider quitting fostering. Method: A sample of 652 foster parents completed a survey of 139 items including the Foster Parent Satisfaction Survey [Denby, R. W., Rindfleisch, N., & Bean, G. (1999). Predictors of foster parent's satisfaction and intent to continue to foster. Child Abuse & Neglect, 23, 287-303]. Results: Foster parents were motivated by wanting to be loving parents to children and saving children from harm. The factor analysis of the FPSS resulted in five factors that were consistent with typical scoring methods of the instrument. A discriminant function analysis using these factors and whether parents had considered quitting fostering revealed that one factor, Challenging Aspects of Fostering, correctly classified 75.5% of parents. Conclusions: Foster parents' satisfaction is related to their perceptions about teamwork, communication, and confidence in relation to both the child welfare agency and its professionals. Further, the most frequently endorsed reasons for fostering reflected foster parents' altruistic and internal motivations to foster. Negative relationships with professional staff from the child welfare agency were linked to considering quitting fostering.     

Who benefits from general knowledge?

While vocational education is meant to provide occupational-specific skills that are directly employable, their returns may be limited in fast-changing economies. Conversely, general education should provide learning skills, but these may have little value at low levels of education. This paper contributes to this debate by exploiting a reform introduced in Spain in 1990 that postponed students’ choice between these two educational pathways from age 14 to 16. To identify exogenous changes in this policy, we instrument its staggered implementation with pre-reform province shares of students in general education interacted with cohort fixed effects. Results indicate that, by shifting educational investment from vocational to general education after age 16, the reform improves occupational outcomes and wages. However, these positive effects are concentrated among middle to high-skilled individuals. In contrast, those who acquire only basic general education have worse long-term employment prospects than vocationally-trained individuals.     

Who benefits from public spending on higher education in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa?

Most countries are far from achieving the new sustainable development target of equal access to higher education by 2030, with those in South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa furthest behind. This raises questions about the allocation of public resources across the education system to promote equity. We use data from Demographic and Health Surveys and UNESCO Institute for Statistics in 31 countries in these regions to assess who benefits from public spending on education. Our results reveal an overall pattern of pro-rich education spending, increasing with education level. We find that this pattern can be traced to an allocation of resources to higher education that is disproportionate to the sub-sector’s size: even when higher education spending overall represents a small proportion of total educational expenditure, per-capita expenditure is extremely high. Given that the richest predominantly gain access to higher education, the current spending patterns are likely to reinforce wealth-driven education inequalities.     

Who benefits from homework assignments?

Using Dutch data on pupils in elementary school this paper is the first empirical study to analyze whether assigning homework has a heterogeneous impact on pupil achievement. Addressing potential biases by using a difference-in-difference approach, I find that the test score gap is larger in classes where everybody gets homework than in classes where nobody gets homework. More precisely pupils belonging to the upper part of the socioeconomic scale perform better when homework is given, whereas pupils from the lowest part are unaffected. At the same time more disadvantaged children get less help from their parents with their homework. Homework can therefore amplify existing inequalities through complementarities with home inputs.     

Who succeeds in advanced mathematics and science courses?

Few students (particularly few girls) currently choose to take their Final School Examination (FSE) in advanced mathematics, chemistry and physics, a combination of subjects that is the best preparation for a science‐oriented study in higher education. Are these subjects attainable by more students than is currently the case? This study examined 6033 students in upper secondary education, including 720 students who took their FSE in advanced mathematics, chemistry and physics. The results show that the latter group (and in particular the girls in that group) had higher scores on math ability than students who chose other examination subjects. Regression analyses demonstrated the relative importance of math ability and achievement motivation for attainment in these science subjects. However, an expected positive effect of homework time as well as possible mediating and moderating effects of the predictors could not be confirmed.     

Coherence in professional education: does it foster dedication and identification?

This article examines the impact of professional education on students' dedication to and identification with a profession. The premise is that professional education is not only about knowledge acquisition and reasoning but also about attitudes and aspirations. In fostering dedication and identification, students' experiences of relevance seem to be important. The concept of coherence seen as an expression of relevance is introduced and measured by four kinds of interactions: Theory–practice interaction, teacher–student interaction, peer interaction and supervisor–student interaction. Analysis indicates that coherence, particularly as theory–practice interaction, peer interaction and supervisor–student interaction, has a significant impact on dedication to and identification with a profession. Longitudinal survey data – collected from students in colleges for teaching, nursing and social work – are analysed.     

Who Benefits from the Massification of Higher Education in Taiwan?

The objectives of expanding higher education are to foster advanced personnel and realize the concept of achieving equal access to education. The problems created by the expansion of higher education in many countries, including Taiwan, in fact indicate a divergence from originally anticipated objectives. Such problems include the uneven allocation of resources, tuition differences between public and private schools, and vicious competition in the face of declining student enrollments, all of which contribute to concerns about educational quality issues. Of additional interest is whether Taiwan's focus on university enrollments of disadvantaged ethnic groups has created a trend toward greater educational opportunities for its aboriginal people. Nevertheless, the distribution of resources is increasingly concentrated on elites from high socioeconomic backgrounds and in a few public universities. All of these factors have facilitated an increasing class reproduction in higher education. The original elites continue to enjoy a wealth of resources. Yet while more and more students gain access to higher education, their institutional teaching quality and learning environment still fall behind that of the elites.     

Who drops out from primary schools in China? Evidence from minority-concentrated rural areas

One of the Millennium Development Goals is to ensure universal access to primary education by 2015. However, primary school dropout remains a challenge in many developing countries. While official statistics in China report aggregated primary school dropout of only 0.2 %, almost no independent, survey-based studies have sought to verify these dropout rates in rural areas. The primary objective of our study is to document the dropout rate in primary schools in rural China and compare the dropout rate of ethnic minorities and Han students. Using a first-hand dataset of 14,761 primary students in northwest China, we demonstrate that the annual dropout rate in poor rural areas is 2.5 %, suggesting a cumulative dropout of 8.2 %. Importantly, Hui and Salar minority students drop out at rates that are significantly higher than the official rates. Most noteworthy, 23 % of Hui girls and 22 % of Salar girls are dropping out by the end of grade 6. Our findings call for more attention to China’s primary school dropout issue—especially in minority areas. Policymakers should begin to examine new ways to increase the chances for minority students to succeed in the educational system.