Foster care outcomes and experiences of infants removed due to substance abuse

ABSTRACT

This exploratory study used administrative data from the 2015 foster care file of the Adoption and Foster Care Reporting System to examine the experiences and outcomes of infants who had substance abuse indicated as their reason for removal. Logistic regression was used to explore the relationship between removal for substance abuse and race/ethnicity, placement setting, case plan goal, and discharge manner. T-tests were used to compare infants groups with respect to average placement duration. Separate analyses were conducted to compare outcomes for infants with substance abuse as their sole removal reason and for infants with substance abuse included as at least one removal reason amongst others. Nearly 17% of infants had substance abuse indicated as their sole removal reason and over 50% of infants had substance abuse included among multiple removal reasons. Infants removed due to substance abuse differed on a number of key outcomes compared to infants whose cases did not include substance abuse as a removal reason. Findings suggest that local child welfare systems would benefit from ongoing assessment of trends in substance abuse removals and that more attention to the long-term child welfare outcomes of children who were removed due to substance abuse as infants is warranted.

KEYWORDS:

• Infants
• foster care
• substance abuse
• removal reason

Notes

1 The AFCARS codebook uses the term “addicted at birth.” It should be noted that infants can be physically dependent upon substances; however, they cannot be addicted. Addiction includes a constellation of psychological and behavioral symptoms that are not applicable to infants. According to the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM) addiction is “a primary, chronic disease of brain reward, motivation, memory and related circuitry. Dysfunction in these circuits leads to characteristic biological, psychological, social and spiritual manifestations. This is reflected in an individual pathologically pursuing reward and/or relief by substance use and other behaviors” (ASAM, 2011). As such, the AFCARS database and codebook should be amended to include the proper terminology.

2 In AFCARS child disability is defined as “a clinical diagnosis by a qualified professional of one or more of the following: mental retardation; emotional disturbance; specific learning disability; hearing, speech or sight impairment; physical disability; or other clinically diagnosed handicap” (National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, 2016, p. 41). Furthermore, AFCARS states that this factor is only included if the disability was at least one of the factors which led to the child’s removal.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Reiko Boyd

Reiko Boyd, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Houston Graduate College of Social Work. Her research focuses on racial disparities and equity in the child welfare system, Black infant health and wellbeing, youth emancipating from foster care, and structural inequality and opportunity in communities of color.