The adoption of children from out-of-home care: The understandings of key decision makers in Victoria,Australia

Adoption is one of a range of options that can provide children in out-of-home care with permanency when they are unable to be reunified with their birth parents. This paper reports on how the adoption of children from out-of-home care is understood by professionals involved in making decisions about the permanent placement of children in out-of-home care in Victoria, Australia, where adoption is rarely used. Data were collected through a single, face-to-face semi-structured interview with 21 professionals; eight child welfare specialists, eight adoption and permanent care specialists and five judicial officers. The adoption of children from out-of-home care was primarily understood as a child-centered practice that can afford children stability and a sense of belonging. Adoption was largely viewed as a voluntary process dependent upon the consent of a child’s birth parents. Adoption and permanent care specialists were the only group to refer to the dispensation of parental consent as a means of obtaining an adoption order. Most decision makers understood that contact between children and their birth parents is possible following adoption, but this was not understood by all judicial officers or all child welfare specialists. Children’s connection to their cultural heritage was viewed as important to the consideration of adoption for children in out-of-home care. This research provides insight into the foundations upon which decision makers may appraise adoption, within a hierarchy of options, as a potential outcome for children in need of permanency.     

Effectiveness of family group conferencing in preventing repeat referrals to child protective services and out-of-home placements

Rigorous research on the efficacy of family group conferencing is rare. This randomized control trial study used an intent-to-treat approach to examine whether a referral to a family group conference (FGC) was associated with re-referrals, substantiated re-referrals, or out-of-home placements among child welfare-involved families receiving in-home services. We found no significant associations between treatment and control group assignment and the three outcomes for the sample as a whole. However, families with more children had higher odds of a re-referral and a substantiated re-referral, families with more than one parent had higher odds of re-referral, and families where a substance abuse services referral was noted had higher odds of out-of-home placement. In interaction models with race, we found that families with African American mothers who were referred for an FGC were more likely to be re-referred compared to other families, but no differences were identified with respect to their rates of substantiated re-referrals or out-of-home placements. Implications are discussed.     

Predictors of placement for children who initially remained in their homes after an investigation for abuse or neglect

Objective

To examine the frequency and predictors of out-of-home placement in a 30-month follow-up for a nationally representative sample of children investigated for a report of maltreatment who remained in their homes following the index child welfare report.

Methods

Data came from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being (NSCAW), a 3-year longitudinal study of 5,501 youth 0-14 years old referred to child welfare agencies for potential maltreatment between 10/1999 and 12/2000. These analyses focused on the children who had not been placed out-of-home at the baseline interview and examined child, family and case characteristics as predictors of subsequent out-of-home placement. Weighted logistic regression models were used to determine which baseline characteristics were related to out-of-home placement in the follow-up.

Results

For the total study sample, predictors of placement in the 30-month follow-up period included elevated Conflict Tactics Scale scores, prior history of child welfare involvement, high family risk scores and caseworkers’ assessment of likelihood of re-report without receipt of services. Higher family income was protective. For children without any prior child welfare history (incident cases), younger children, low family income and a high family risk score were strongly related to subsequent placement but receipt of services and case workers’ assessments were not.

Conclusions/practice implications

Family risk variables are strongly related to out-of-home placement in a 30-month follow-up, but receipt of child welfare services is not related to further placements. Considering family risk factors and income, 25% of the children who lived in poor families, with high family risk scores, were subsequently placed out-of-home, even among children in families who received child welfare services. Given that relevant evidence-based interventions are available for these families, more widespread tests of their use should be explored to understand whether their use could make a substantial difference in the lives of vulnerable children.     

Factors associated with caregiver stability in permanent placements: a classification tree approach

Objective

Identify individual and environmental variables associated with caregiver stability and instability for children in diverse permanent placement types (i.e., reunification, adoption, and long-term foster care/guardianship with relatives or non-relatives), following 5 or more months in out-of-home care prior to age 4 due to substantiated maltreatment.

Methods

Participants were 285 children from the Southwestern site of Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN). Caregiver instability was defined as a change in primary caregiver between ages 6 and 8 years. Classification and regression tree (CART) analysis was used to identify the strongest predictors of instability from multiple variables assessed at age 6 with caregiver and child reports within the domains of neighborhood/community characteristics, caregiving environment, caregiver characteristics, and child characteristics.

Results

One out of 7, or 14% of the 285 children experienced caregiver instability in their permanent placement between ages 6 and 8. The strongest predictor of stability was whether the child had been placed in adoptive care. However, for children who were not adopted, a number of contextual factors (e.g., father involvement, expressiveness within the family) and child characteristics (e.g., intellectual functioning, externalizing problem behaviors) predicted stability and instability of permanent placements.

Conclusions

Current findings suggest that a number of factors should be considered, in addition to placement type, if we are to understand what predicts caregiver stability and find stable permanent placements for children who have entered foster care. These factors include involvement of a father figure, family functioning, and child functioning.

Practice implications

Adoption was supported as a desired permanent placement in terms of stability, but results suggest that other placement types can also lead to stability. In fact, with attention to providing biological parents, relative, and non-relative caregivers with support and resources (e.g., emotional, financial, and optimizing father involvement or providing a stable adult figure) the likelihood that a child will have a stable caregiver may be increased.     

Answering the big questions about differential response in Colorado: Safety and cost outcomes from a randomized controlled trial

Over the past 20 years, jurisdictions across the United States have implemented differential response (DR), which provides child protective services with the flexibility to tailor their response to reports of child abuse or neglect based on the level of risk. Given the widespread adoption of DR, there has been an increasing demand from policymakers, practitioners, and community stakeholders to build the evidence base for this innovative child welfare approach. This study was designed to answer the big questions regarding the effect of differential response on child welfare outcomes and costs using a randomized controlled trial in five Colorado counties. Specifically, the study examined the safety outcomes and costs of families who were randomly assigned to either a family assessment response (FAR) or an investigation response (IR). According to the regression results, there were no differences between the tracks on measures of system re-involvement. However, survival analysis findings indicate that FAR families were 18% less likely, over time, to have a high risk assessment after their initial accepted referral than were IR families. The cost study revealed no differences between the tracks on initial costs for caseworker contacts, services, and out-of-home placements. However, the results suggest that follow-up costs for IR cases were significantly higher (p < 0.001) than for FAR cases. The authors discuss policy and practice implications for jurisdictions considering DR.     

Lesbian,gay, and heterosexual adoptive parents' experiences in preschool environments

Little research has examined the school experiences of lesbian/gay (LG) parent families or adoptive parent families. The current exploratory study examined the experiences of 79 lesbian, 75 gay male, and 112 heterosexual adoptive parents of preschool-age children with respect to their (a) level of disclosure regarding their LG parent and adoptive family status at their children's schools; (b) perceived challenges in navigating the preschool environment and advocating on behalf of their children and families; and (c) recommendations to teachers and schools about how to create affirming school environments with respect to family structure, adoption, and race/ethnicity. Findings revealed that the majority of parents were open about their LG and adoptive family status, and had not encountered challenges related to family diversity. Those parents who did experience challenges tended to describe implicit forms of marginalization, such as insensitive language and school assignments. Recommendations for teachers included discussing and reading books about diverse families, tailoring assignments to meet the needs of diverse families, and offering school community-building activities and events to help bridge differences across families.     

Reducing out-of-home placements of abused children: two controlled field studies

This study presents the outcome data on the effectiveness of social learning treatments in reducing out-of-home placements of abused children. Noteworthy are that true experimental designs used in both studies and their being conducted in a natural field setting, child protection services agencies. The results indicate that this model of family intervention is an effective alternative to out-of-home placements with this population for approximately 50% of typical child protection services caseloads. The cost benefits of social learning treatments are discussed along with potentially useful clinical and research directions.     

Temperamental sensitivity to early maltreatment and later family cohesion for externalizing behaviors in youth adopted from foster care

Children in foster care frequently have histories of physical/sexual abuse and neglect, increasing their risk for externalizing behaviors (EB; e.g., aggression). According to the differential susceptibility theory, children with reactive temperaments (e.g., negative emotionality) may be particularly vulnerable to early maltreatment, but may also benefit the most from environmental enrichment such as family cohesion. In a high-risk longitudinal sample of 82 children adopted from foster care in Los Angeles County from 1996 and 2001, we examined predictions of EB from childhood to adolescence/young adulthood from temperament, preadoption maltreatment, and adoptive family cohesion. Overall, results from generalized linear models and generalized estimating equations (GEE) did not support differential susceptibility theory – specifically, youth with early reactive temperament did not exhibit heightened sensitivity to maltreatment nor to later adoptive family cohesion. Instead, reactive temperament was associated with higher EB at initial adoptive placement and escalating EB across childhood, controlling for age, gender, race-ethnicity, preadoption maltreatment, and adoptive family cohesion. Preadoption maltreatment history was unrelated to baseline EB, although sexual abuse history predicted escalating childhood EB post-adoption, whereas exposure to family violence (e.g., domestic violence) inversely predicted EB over time. By late adolescence/young adulthood 11–15 years post-adoption, rates of arrest and substance use in this sample were relatively comparable to normative populations of youth, although older age of adoption predicted more substance use in late adolescence/young adulthood. Findings highlight early reactive temperament and preadoption maltreatment as important risk factors to target for ameliorating patterns of EB growth in the first few years of adoption.     

Factors associated with mental health services referrals for children investigated by child welfare

Although child welfare caseworkers are responsible for facilitating mental health services access for maltreated children, little is known about caseworkers’ decisions to refer children to services. We aimed to identify factors associated with caseworker referral of children to mental health services after a maltreatment investigation. We analyzed data from 1956 children 2–17 years old from the Second National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-being. We examined associations of children’s predisposing, enabling, and need-related factors and caseworkers’ work environment characteristics with referral to mental health services. Caseworkers referred 21.0% of children to mental health services. In multivariable analyses controlling for potential covariates, factors associated with increased odds of caseworker referral included: older child age; child sexual abuse (versus neglect); child out-of-home placement; caregiver mental health problems; prior maltreatment reports; clinically significant child behavioral problems; and child welfare agency collaborative ties with mental health providers (all p < .05). Factors associated with decreased odds of caseworker referral included child Black race (versus White race) and lack of insurance (versus Private insurance) (all p < .05). In summary, children’s need for mental health services was positively associated with caseworker referral to services but certain predisposing and enabling factors and caseworker work environment characteristics also correlated with services referral. Interventions to reduce disparities in services referral by race and insurance type are critically needed. These may include child welfare agency implementation of policies for mental health screening, assessment, and services referral based on clinical need and establishment of child welfare-mental health agency collaborative ties.     

Adoptive Gay Father Families: A Longitudinal Study of Children’s Adjustment at Early Adolescence

Findings are presented from the second phase of a UK longitudinal study of 33 gay father, 35 lesbian mother, and 43 heterosexual parent families when their adopted children reached early adolescence. Participants predominantly lived in urban/suburban areas and were mostly white and well-educated. Standardized interviews, observations, and questionnaires of parental mental health, parent–child relationships, and adolescent adjustment were administered to parents, children, and teachers between 2016 and 2018. There were few differences between family types. However, adjustment problems had increased in all family types, with better parenting quality and parental mental health associated with fewer adjustment problems. The findings contribute to adoption policy and practice, and to theoretical understanding of the role of parental gender in child development.     

Government leadership to protect children from foster care "drift"

In the United States public concern about foster care drift is widespread. "Drift" means lengthy placement away from the natural family, without a clear goal to return the child or find some other permanent home. Concern is focused on the negative effect of lengthy foster care on the psychological health of the child, and also on the increasing cost of such placement. Recently, the federal government, in response to extensive testimony about these issues, passed landmark legislation designed to reduce foster care drift, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Funding Act of 1980. Thus the government has now become a leader in child welfare planning. The law requires a reporting and tracking system so that no child already in placement becomes "lost in the system." In addition, all proposed foster placements are now hedged with requirements that there be clear purposes and goals to be achieved by such placements. In effect placements must be defended, tracked, and reviewed periodically. The new requirements pose a rebuke to the professions serving children which have failed to stem the increase in foster care, and to control and place a time limit on such interventions in the family. Federal leadership has created a political climate in child welfare planning. The regulations issued to implement the law in the Carter presidency differ from those of the current administration. The current policy of the government of the United States is to provide protection of the family from excessive foster care placements by child welfare agencies. This is support for greater autonomy for the family, a more conservative approach.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)     

Families with children conceived by donor insemination: a follow-up at age twelve

Growing public awareness of the use of donor insemination (DI) to enable infertile couples to become parents has been accompanied by increasing concern regarding the potentially negative consequences for family relationships and child development. Findings are presented from a prospective study of the quality of parenting and psychological adjustment of DI children at age 12. Thirty-seven DI families, 49 adoptive families, and 91 families with a naturally conceived child were compared on standardized interview and questionnaire measures administered to mothers, fathers, children, and teachers. The differences between DI families and the other family types reflected greater expressive warmth of DI mothers toward their children and less involvement in the discipline of their children by DI fathers. The DI children were well adjusted in terms of their social and emotional development. The findings are discussed with respect to the secrecy surrounding DI and the imbalance in genetic relatedness between the parents and the child.     

Child Effects on Parental Negativity: The Role of Heritable and Prenatal Factors

This study examined two possible mechanisms, evocative gene–environment correlation and prenatal factors, in accounting for child effects on parental negativity. Participants included 561 children adopted at birth, and their adoptive parents and birth parents within a prospective longitudinal adoption study. Findings indicated child effects on parental negativity, such that toddlers’ negative reactivity at 18 months was positively associated with adoptive parents’ over-reactive and hostile parenting at 27 months. Furthermore, we found that child effects on parental negativity were partially due to heritable (e.g., birth mother [BM] internalizing problems and substance use) and prenatal factors (e.g., BM illicit drug use during pregnancy) that influence children’s negative reactivity at 18 months. This study provides critical evidence for “child on parent” effects.     

Adoptive Parenting Cognitions: Acknowledgement of Differences as a Predictor of Adolescents’ Attachment to Parents

SYNOPSIS

Objective. Adoptive parents’ acknowledgment of differences is defined as the propensity to think that adoptive and nonadoptive families are different in important ways. Few studies have examined the implications of such cognitions for the parent–child bond. Design. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine the relation between adoptive parents’ acknowledgment of differences and adolescents’ later attachment to their parents in a sample of within-race domestic infant adoptions. Data from 189 adoptive families were drawn from two waves (middle childhood, adolescence) of the Minnesota/Texas Adoption Research Project, a longitudinal study of openness in adoption. Results. Levels of acknowledgment of differences displayed by the adoptive mother and adoptive father during middle childhood positively predicted adopted adolescents’ feelings of attachment toward the respective parent 8 years later. This relation depended on adopted adolescents’ attitude toward adoption-related communication during middle childhood as well as the adoptive family’s level of openness during middle childhood. Conclusions. Acknowledgment of differences in adoptive families has positive implications for the parent–child bond.     

Physical abuse in children under two: a study of therapeutic outcomes

This study of physical abuse to children under the age of 2 addresses the prognosis of the family, compliance with treatment recommendations and the long term outcome of the child. Data were collected from a multidisciplinary evaluation team and from the Department of Human Services' records on 71 children. Nearly all families were referred for mental health counseling and parent training, but only 33% complied. Half of the children were abused more than once; 30% were abused after referral for counseling. The incidence of reabuse was unrelated to compliance with counseling. The majority of children had some out-of-home placement with a mean time in foster care of 11 months and in care of relatives for 24.4 months. In 69% of families, more than one child was abused. At the time of follow-up, 41% of children and 47% of siblings were not living with either parent. Half of the families were judged to be functioning poorly and only nine had made good progress in counseling.     

Transactions Between Child Social Wariness and Observed Structured Parenting: Evidence From a Prospective Adoption Study

This investigation examined the mutual influences between structured parenting and child social wariness during toddlerhood using a longitudinal adoption design. The sample consisted of 361 adoption‐linked families, each including an adopted child, adoptive parents, and a birth mother. Heightened social wariness in children at age 18 months predicted reduced levels of observed structured parenting (i.e., less directive parenting with fewer commands and requests) in adoptive mothers at age 27 months. Adoptive fathers' lower structured parenting at age 18 months predicted subsequent elevation in child social wariness. Birth mothers' history of fear‐related anxiety disorders was not associated with child social wariness. Findings highlight the role of dynamic family transactions in the development of social wariness during toddlerhood.     

Determinants of placement for sexually abused children

While conducting a prospective study of 100 sexually abused children, we found a much higher rate of out-of-home placement than has been previously described for child maltreatment. This study was designed to determine which factors were most influential in predicting the placement experiences of this cohort. The children, ages 6-17 years, were recently substantiated victims of intrafamilial sexual abuse whose parents or guardians permitted study involvement. We examined child and family demographics, abuse characteristics, and family response as possible determinants of immediate and later placement. At the initial assessment, within a few weeks of the disclosure, 50% of the children had already been removed. A follow-up assessment of 83 children two years later revealed that 73% had been removed from the abusing home. In a multivariate regression model, only maternal support of the child emerged as a significant predictor of immediate placement and placement over time. The offender's status as a resident in the child's home was an important predictor of immediate placement but was not significant as a predictor of all placements at any time. As maternal support is an important predictor of the need for placement, workers are encouraged to seek ways of enhancing maternal support as a means of reducing placement.     

Child strengths and placement stability among racial/ethnic minority youth in the child welfare system

While all children deserve a stable living environment, national data illustrate that many states struggle to achieve placement stability for youth in the child welfare system as a significant number of children in foster care continue to experience multiple placements while in state custody. Prior research has not considered the impact of youth protective factors or strengths on the frequency of placement changes that youth experience while in the child welfare system. This study examined the association between strengths measured at multiple levels (i.e., individual, family, and community) and placement stability among 4022 minority youth (aged 10–18) using administrative and clinical data from the Illinois child welfare system. Negative binomial regressions at the family level revealed that youth with at least one loving and supportive family member experienced 16% fewer placement changes than youth without family strengths. At the community level, youth attending schools that work to create an environment that meets its students’ needs experienced 13% fewer placement changes than youth without educational supports. These findings can inform the quality of treatment and services provided to minority youth in the child welfare system.     

Abuse and deprivation in failing adoptions

Twelve children seen in psychiatric consultation by the authors over a 3-year period were failing in their adoptive placements. All twelve had been adopted as older children (average age at adoption 5 . Ten out of the12 were males. A retrospective case review demonstrated that all the children shared several common characteristics: (1)a history of both neglect and abusive treatment during at least the first two years of life, (2) a behavioral pattern that wasintermittently provocative and punishment seeking, and (3) an ability to elicit a sense of bewilderment and betrayal in theadoptive parents. Twenty-one months was the average duration of the adoption before the families sought the consultation. These adoptive families were all considered competent by the agencies involved. All had raised other natural and adoptive children successfully. Treatment offered by the authors seemed to be helpful in salvaging 4 of the 12 adoptive placements. The authors present these cases as a way of drawing attention to much needed research, both in better understanding the early attachment process in “older child” adoptions, and in better understanding the relative impact of abuse in influencing the child's subsequent attachment capacities.     

Caregivers' readiness for change: predictive validity in a child welfare sample

OBJECTIVE: To assess the predictive validity of continuous measures of problem recognition (PR), intentions to change (ITC), and overall readiness for change (RFC) among primary caregivers who received in-home services following substantiated reports of child abuse or neglect. METHOD: A modified version of the University of Rhode Island Change Assessment scale was included in interviews with a sample of 353 primary caregivers at 4 weeks, 16 weeks, and 1 year after referral for in-home services. Additional data were obtained from administrative records and caseworker surveys. Hierarchical linear and nonlinear models were used to assess relationships between PR, ITC, RFC and changes over time in measures of individual and family functioning (e.g., parenting behaviors, children's behaviors, housing and economic problems, social support, and life events). Bivariate probit regression analysis was used to examine relationships between PR, ITC, RFC and the likelihood of subsequent reports of child maltreatment and out-of-home placements within 1 year after referral. RESULTS: Initial problem recognition and intentions to change predict a few improvements in individual and family functioning, along with significant reductions in the likelihood of additional reports of child maltreatment within 1 year. Initial intentions to change also predict reductions in the substantiation of subsequent reports of maltreatment. An overall measure of readiness for change predicts reductions in the likelihood of out-of-home placement. CONCLUSIONS: Problem recognition and intentions to change predict somewhat different outcomes; hence, there are few advantages of a combined measure of readiness for change. Further inquiry is needed to determine whether and how these associations are mediated by intervention processes or other factors in child welfare services populations.