Methodological and Validity Issues Involved in the Collection of Sensitive Information From Children in Foster Care

ABSTRACT

The Illinois Child Well-Being Study (ICWBS) established a red-flag reporting system (RFRS) embedded in the Audio Computer Assisted Self Interview (ACASI) portion of its child survey to flag reports of violence toward the child, suicidality, neglect, and/or sexual exploitation. When those RFRS questions were positively answered, the reported incident was relayed to the child's caseworker and investigated. This study describes the RFRS, the analysis of the children's reports, and a content analysis of the caseworkers' investigation. In this study, 166 children were interviewed and 28 children reported 36 RFRS incidents. On investigation, only 6 RFRS incidents were verified; most RFRS incidents were reported in error. The results of this study may help researchers using similar RFRS protocols.

KEYWORDS:

• Audio computer assisted self-interview
• ACASI
• child interviewing
• child abuse and neglect
• child suicidality and suicidal ideation
• child well-being
• foster care
• recanting

Mary Ann Jacobs, PhD, is an assistant professor at San Diego State University (SDSU). Christina Bruhn, PhD, is a research specialist at the Children and Family Research Center, an independent research organization created jointly in 1996 at the School of Social Work by the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign (UIUC) and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (IDCFS). Ingrid Graf, MA, is the Assistant Director for Research Planning at the Survey Research Laboratory at the University of Illinois in Chicago (UIC).

This study is based on data from the Illinois Study of Child Well-Being,which was funded by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The opinions expressed here do not necessarily reflect those of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, San Diego State University, or the University of Illinois.

Notes

1. The red-flag reporting system refers to a method to identify the positive response to certain survey questions, a protocol to notify the child's caseworker, and to collect information from the caseworker regarding follow-up with the child.

2. Table 1 does not contain the actual questions that were asked in the Well-Being Study's child interview. Instead question types tell the content of the questions derived from child well-being scales used in the Well-Being Study. The Well-Being Study used the questions from the referenced scales with permission from their authors, but some were taken out of context of their original scales.