Child-Maltreatment-Research-L (CMRL) List Serve

Message ID: 10844

Date: 2020-08-11

Author:LaBrenz, Catherine

Subject:Re: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison

Hi Dylan, It sounds like you already have gotten some great suggestions on ways you might proceed. Depending on the data source, controlling for length of sentence would make sense as those incarcerated for long periods of time would have very low odds of reunification. I've worked some with AFCARS and wonder if it might be interesting to track trends over time related to kids entering care because of parental incarceration, and types of permanency over time for children whose parents were incarcerated (it could also be interesting to look at race/ethnicity as a moderator, given the issues of racism and mass-incarceration and how these intersect with child welfare systems). That may be a very different paper than what you were going for, but I'd be happy to chat more if that is something that you might be interested in pursuing! Please feel free to send me an email if you might want to chat more or discuss your idea in more depth! Good luck with everything, Catherine -- Catherine LaBrenz, MSW, Ph.D. Pronouns: She/Her/Hers Assistant Professor The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work | 512.915.1637 Social Work Complex, Building B, Office 101G catherine.labrenz@uta.edu ________________________________ From: bounce-124836515-86836125@list.cornell.edu on behalf of Paul Steele Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 10:26 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) Subject: Re: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison Hi Dylan, Since I am mostly known as a criminologist, my approach to this has been from the standpoint of the collateral impact of parental incarceration on families. Years ago when I was the Director of Research at the Vera Institute, Sara Maclanahan (Princeton) and John Hagen (Northwestern) worked with us on the topic, and the research has moved forward apace. I can see some significant challenges in trying to conduct such a study as you propose, given the number of co-occurring and historical influences that also affect the outcome you are exploring, and the limitations of AFCARS data, but it is a topic that is really worth the effort. I think you might want to look into the data collected as part of the Fragile Families Survey, done by Sara and her thoughtful associates at Princeton. https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/era Best regards, Paul On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 8:13 AM Small, Dylan S > wrote: Thanks so much to everyone who responded! I really appreciate the insights, suggestions and references! Dylan From: bounce-124834867-77316175@list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Dworsky, Amy Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 3:14 PM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: RE: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison Hi Dylan- You might want to rethink the comparison. Some research I did several years ago suggests that adoption is a more common outcome for children in foster care with an incarcerated mother than reunification. See https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOFAMSJ-4-117 This study was limited to one state and is a little dated at this point. I am hoping to do some more research on this issue. Amy From: bounce-124834642-55641443@list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Ruth Anne White Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 10:17 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: RE: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison [EXTERNAL EMAIL] DO NOT CLICK links or attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dylan, I would urge you to reach out to Joseph Doyle, Ph.D. of MIT. As an economist, he appears to operate outside the child welfare epistemic community and as a consequence, his work is often dismissed. It will be invaluable in your literature review and prep for a study of your own. The study below was immediately attacked as unscientific but I hope you will read it nonetheless as it is closely aligned with what you are seeking to study. His MIT faculty page is here: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/joseph-doyle "Causal Effects of Foster Care: An Instrumental-Variables Approach." Doyle, Joseph J. Children and Youth Services Review Vol. 35, No. 7 (2013): 1143-1151. Download paper . All my best, Ruthie Ruth White, MSSA Executive Director National Center for Housing & Child Welfare 4707 Calvert Road College Park, MD 20740 phone 301-699-0151 toll free 866-790-6766 rwhite@nchcw.org www.nchcw.org Strengthening America's families through affordable housing. From: bounce-124833920-12859385@list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Kate Piper Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 9:54 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: Re: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison I d be interested in seeing your results, Dylan. I would suggest that you include in your analysis some baseline information about the children at the time they came into custody. It may well be different for children in custody due to the incarceration of a parent but what I saw in my 20 years of representing children in child protection hearings was the overwhelming damage to kids by the time they were removed from the home due to years of maltreatment and despite multiple reports to DCF and years of services to the parents. Most of these kids had some of these: PTSD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, developmental delays, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, school problems-behavioral &/or academic, etc. Most states are now doing trauma assessments of children when they come into custody. That would be a good starting point. You might also want to look at the federal data on re entry into foster care after reunification. Good luck! Kate Piper, JD, PhD Kathrynapiper@gmail.com Sent from my iPad On Aug 10, 2020, at 7:21 AM, Small, Dylan S > wrote:  Hi everyone, I’m interested in doing a causal analysis of the effect of remaining in foster care vs. reunification for children of women released from prison. I’m wondering if anyone is aware of a study (studies) that have been done on this question. Thanks. Best regards, Dylan Dylan Small, Ph.D. Class of 1965 Wharton Professor of Statistics and Department Chair Department of Statistics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania -- Paul D. Steele Native American Children's Alliance National Center for Adoption and Permanency Professor (emeritus) University of New Mexico

Hi Dylan, It sounds like you already have gotten some great suggestions on ways you might proceed. Depending on the data source, controlling for length of sentence would make sense as those incarcerated for long periods of time would have very low odds of reunification. I've worked some with AFCARS and wonder if it might be interesting to track trends over time related to kids entering care because of parental incarceration, and types of permanency over time for children whose parents were incarcerated (it could also be interesting to look at race/ethnicity as a moderator, given the issues of racism and mass-incarceration and how these intersect with child welfare systems). That may be a very different paper than what you were going for, but I'd be happy to chat more if that is something that you might be interested in pursuing! Please feel free to send me an email if you might want to chat more or discuss your idea in more depth! Good luck with everything, Catherine -- Catherine LaBrenz, MSW, Ph.D. Pronouns: She/Her/Hers Assistant Professor The University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work | 512.915.1637 Social Work Complex, Building B, Office 101G catherine.labrenzuta.edu ________________________________ From: bounce-124836515-86836125list.cornell.edu on behalf of Paul Steele Sent: Tuesday, August 11, 2020 10:26 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) Subject: Re: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison Hi Dylan, Since I am mostly known as a criminologist, my approach to this has been from the standpoint of the collateral impact of parental incarceration on families. Years ago when I was the Director of Research at the Vera Institute, Sara Maclanahan (Princeton) and John Hagen (Northwestern) worked with us on the topic, and the research has moved forward apace. I can see some significant challenges in trying to conduct such a study as you propose, given the number of co-occurring and historical influences that also affect the outcome you are exploring, and the limitations of AFCARS data, but it is a topic that is really worth the effort. I think you might want to look into the data collected as part of the Fragile Families Survey, done by Sara and her thoughtful associates at Princeton. https://fragilefamilies.princeton.edu/era Best regards, Paul On Tue, Aug 11, 2020 at 8:13 AM Small, Dylan S > wrote: Thanks so much to everyone who responded! I really appreciate the insights, suggestions and references! Dylan From: bounce-124834867-77316175list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Dworsky, Amy Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 3:14 PM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: RE: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison Hi Dylan- You might want to rethink the comparison. Some research I did several years ago suggests that adoption is a more common outcome for children in foster care with an incarcerated mother than reunification. See https://benthamopen.com/ABSTRACT/TOFAMSJ-4-117 This study was limited to one state and is a little dated at this point. I am hoping to do some more research on this issue. Amy From: bounce-124834642-55641443list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Ruth Anne White Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 10:17 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: RE: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison [EXTERNAL EMAIL] DO NOT CLICK links or attachments unless you recognize the sender and know the content is safe. Dylan, I would urge you to reach out to Joseph Doyle, Ph.D. of MIT. As an economist, he appears to operate outside the child welfare epistemic community and as a consequence, his work is often dismissed. It will be invaluable in your literature review and prep for a study of your own. The study below was immediately attacked as unscientific but I hope you will read it nonetheless as it is closely aligned with what you are seeking to study. His MIT faculty page is here: https://mitsloan.mit.edu/faculty/directory/joseph-doyle "Causal Effects of Foster Care: An Instrumental-Variables Approach." Doyle, Joseph J. Children and Youth Services Review Vol. 35, No. 7 (2013): 1143-1151. Download paper . All my best, Ruthie Ruth White, MSSA Executive Director National Center for Housing & Child Welfare 4707 Calvert Road College Park, MD 20740 phone 301-699-0151 toll free 866-790-6766 rwhitenchcw.org www.nchcw.org Strengthening America's families through affordable housing. From: bounce-124833920-12859385list.cornell.edu > On Behalf Of Kate Piper Sent: Monday, August 10, 2020 9:54 AM To: Child Maltreatment Researcher List (CMRL) > Subject: Re: outcomes for children in foster care vs. reunified of women released from prison I d be interested in seeing your results, Dylan. I would suggest that you include in your analysis some baseline information about the children at the time they came into custody. It may well be different for children in custody due to the incarceration of a parent but what I saw in my 20 years of representing children in child protection hearings was the overwhelming damage to kids by the time they were removed from the home due to years of maltreatment and despite multiple reports to DCF and years of services to the parents. Most of these kids had some of these: PTSD, Reactive Attachment Disorder, developmental delays, Oppositional Defiance Disorder, school problems-behavioral &/or academic, etc. Most states are now doing trauma assessments of children when they come into custody. That would be a good starting point. You might also want to look at the federal data on re entry into foster care after reunification. Good luck! Kate Piper, JD, PhD Kathrynapipergmail.com Sent from my iPad On Aug 10, 2020, at 7:21 AM, Small, Dylan S > wrote:  Hi everyone, I’m interested in doing a causal analysis of the effect of remaining in foster care vs. reunification for children of women released from prison. I’m wondering if anyone is aware of a study (studies) that have been done on this question. Thanks. Best regards, Dylan Dylan Small, Ph.D. Class of 1965 Wharton Professor of Statistics and Department Chair Department of Statistics, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania -- Paul D. Steele Native American Children's Alliance National Center for Adoption and Permanency Professor (emeritus) University of New Mexico