A study published in 2018 identified certain foster care characteristics that are associated with later psychological problems. The researchers were able to distinguish six distinct subgroups of foster youth, and some of these subgroups had a particularly high need for mental health treatment. These findings may help to create a risk assessment tool to identify these youth. The article by Nathanael J. Okpych and Mark E. Courtney at the University of Chicago is titled, “Charac

A pair of longitudinal studies published in 2017 demonstrate both the complexity of implementing trauma systems therapy (TST) in child welfare, and the substantially improved outcomes for foster children when a child welfare system implements it. The studies show that no single provider in the system is key to its success, but rather that it is important to include all the providers in training on trauma informed care, Including, therapist, case managers, supervisors, and fos

A study published in 2018, “Characteristics of Foster Care History as Risk Factors for Psychiatric Disorders Among Youth in Care” by Nathanael J. Okpych and Mark E. Courtney of the University of Chicago found that placement instability correlated with mental health issues and 42% of youth in non-kin foster homes had attempted suicide. The researchers studied 706 late adolescents in the California foster care system. Of this group researchers assessed about 50% with a psychiat

A small 2015 study examined how child welfare workers in England, Norway, and California (USA) assessed emotional bonding as a risk factor for children. The California workers were significantly less likely to note this as a risk factor than the workers in England or Norway. This difference is likely due to the education, and assessment tools used by each child welfare system. In California, the Structured Decision Making (SDM) risk assessment tool, which only has a single q

In Spring 2017, Advances in Social Work published an article titled, “Identifying Trauma-Related and Mental Health Needs: The Implementation of Screening in California’s Child Welfare Systems” by Brent R. Crandal, Andrea L. Hazen, and Jennifer Rolls Reutz. The researchers surveyed county administrators of 46 of the 58 county child welfare agencies in California to determine if and how they are screening for the mental health needs of foster children, particularly the need for

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago recently released its 3rd Wave report on California’s extended foster youth program, called “Findings from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH): Conditions at Age 21, 2018” The researchers for this longitudinal study begun in 2018 are Mark E. Courtney, Nathanael J. Okpych, Keunhye Park, Justin Harty, Huiling Feng, Adrianna Torres-Garcia, and Samiya Sayed. The overall study addresses three research questions:

In July 2018, The Journal of Public Child Welfare, published “Exploring trauma-informed practice in public child welfare through qualitative data-mining of case records,” by Sarah Taylor, Claire Battis, Sarah Carnochan, Colleen Henry, Margaret Balk, and Michael J. Austin.The study used qualitative data-mining to determine how trauma-informed practice manifested in the child welfare system. In response to a lawsuit, in 2011, the Courts mandated better coordination between the

Three studies on permanency outcomes for children adopted or placed in guardianship from the foster care system all found that multiple placements while in foster care was a risk factor for a disrupted adoption or guardianship placement. Each study found other risk and protective factors, but the one consistent finding was that multiple placements in foster care are not in the best interest of children. The first study titled “Predicting re-involvement for children adopted o

In 2017, researchers published a study that found more than 50% of 2,241 youth ages 17-24 accessing homeless services in San Francisco County between 2011 and 2014 had a report to Children Protective Services (CPS) for child abuse or neglect during childhood. For the first time, researchers matched up administrative data from California CPS records and records of homeless youth accessing services. The study found that “Homeless female youth were significantly more likely to h

An article published in 2014 looked at a three-year program to recruit, train and support MSW students as Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) volunteers. CASA recruits, trains, and supports highly trained volunteers to provide a voice for foster children in the dependency courts. The school and CASA program were in an unnamed western state. The collaboration intended to provide Title IV-E students who would work in child welfare with an in-depth experience of foster care

A study published in 2015 looked at how poly-victimization impacted girls in the criminal justice system. This information is particularly pertinent to those of us who work with foster youth, who, by definition, have been the victims of abuse. It seems that interventions at both an early age and at adolescence could have a positive impact on the outcomes for girls who are survivors of abuse and who have witnessed violence in their family or community. There are three types o

The California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse for Child Welfare (CEBC) recently released “Trauma-Informed Care in Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs and Foster Family Agencies” in response to a May 9, 2018 All County Information Notice (ACIN) issued by the California Department of Social Services (CDSS). The ACIN outlines the requirements for trauma-informed care (TIC) for Short-Term Residential Therapeutic Programs (STRTPs). STRTPs are part of the Continuum of Care R

A 2016 study looked at the relationship between abuse and youth outcomes in relation to whether the abuse was self-reported or reported in the case file. The psycho-social outcomes looked at included both externalizing and internalizing behavior. Externalizing behavior is behavior such as acting out in disruptive ways. Internalizing behavior includes isolating, withdrawal, depression, or physical symptoms without a medical explanation. Significantly the study found that exter

It has been well established that foster youth have dismal educational outcomes. Less than half graduate from high school. Only 11.8% of former foster youth have a college degree by the time they are 25-years-old compared to 28% of their non-foster peers. Although these outcomes are well known, there has not been research on the experiences of foster youth in school until a recently published study examined this issue. A large-scale study published in 2018 comparing foster yo

Recently the California Evidence-Based Clearinghouse (CEBC) issued “A Guide for Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASAs)” CEBC is one of the best tools for easily finding evidence-based practices in child welfare. In an earlier blog I discuss this tool in more detail, and their guide for CASAs does not disappoint. It includes three sections: Understanding Evidence-Based Practices (EBP) Recorded CEBC Webinars, including “Knowing the best of what’s out there,” “Evidence-based

A study published in 2017 showed that the highest teen birth rates for foster youth in California were for young women who entered the system between the ages of 13 and 16, were in care for a relatively short period of time, lived in congregate care at the approximate date of conception, had a history of running away, and were Latina, Black or Native American. According to the study, Predictors of Early Childbirth Among Female Adolescents in Foster Care, the “Research indicat

Although much of the research on child welfare refers to the Kaiser-Centers for Disease Control (CDC) Study on Adverse Childhood Experiences there had been no summary of this groundbreaking 1998 research on this blog. The Kaiser-CDC study documents the devastating lifelong impact of child abuse and neglect. For this study the researchers categorized adverse childhood experiences (ACES) in the following ways: Psychological abuse Physical abuse Sexual abuse Substance abuse by h

Research in 2013 on a foster youth mentoring program in Texas shows that these programs need careful design, training, and support to be effective. Although the program had severe limitations due to the small sample size and because the outcomes were determined by satisfaction surveys of the youth and mentors as well as the subjective impressions of the mentors about how their youth fared rather than measurable outcomes, the findings have some valuable lessons, particularly f

Both male and female parents who age out of the foster care system have a 50% unemployment rate in the first year they exit the child welfare system. For those who are working the average annual earnings were just $7,310, which is considerably lower than the poverty level for a single parent with a child of $16,317 in 2014. Although employment was not correlated with the age of the youth at the birth of their first child, giving birth at younger ages did correlate with lower

Former foster youth studied in California, Minnesota and North Carolina had low rates of employment at age 24 compared to other low-income youth and to national comparison group of similarly aged youth. Additionally, female employment was higher than male employment, but they earned much less than their male counterparts, and African American unemployment rate was much higher than their White peers. Most problematic, the employment gaps worsen as foster youth age. By age 30,