Child and state factors in positive permanency: a multi-level survival analysis

ABSTRACT

Positive permanency, or leaving foster care to a permanent family setting, is a priority for children in care. Yet, there are barriers to achieving permanency, particularly among children of color. This study examined child and state factors that impacted permanency outcomes, with a particular focus on racial disparities. The researchers utilized a sample of n = 208,742 children who entered care in 2016 from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). A series of multi-level survival analyses were conducted to examine child and state system factors associated with positive permanency, with a focus on child race/ethnicity and state disparity indexes. Results confirmed ongoing disparities for Black, American Indian, Hispanic, Pacific Islander, and Multi-Racial children in care. Implications for practice, policy, and future research are explored.

KEYWORDS:

• Positive permanency
• racial/ethnic disparities
• disproportionality
• child welfare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Catherine A. LaBrenz

The data used in this publication were made available by the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, and have been used with permission. Data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) were originally reported to the Children’s Bureau. Funding for the project was provided by the Children’s Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Data from NCANDS were originally collected under the auspices of the Children’s Bureau. The receiver of the original data, the funder, the Archive, Cornell University and their agents or employees bear no responsibility for the analyses or interpretations presented here.

Dr. Catherine LaBrenz is an Assistant Professor at the University of Texas at Arlington School of Social Work. Her research focuses on increasing family and community resilience to break cycles of maltreatment. As a former child welfare practitioner in Chile, Dr. LaBrenz’s work also recognizes the importance of contextual factors in child and family outcome.

Sreyashi Chakravarty

Sreyashi Chakravarty is a post-doctoral scholar at the Center for Social Policy at the University of New Mexico. She completed her Ph.D. in Social Work from the University at Albany, SUNY. Her research focuses on racism and discrimination-related inquires in human services organizations, as well as health disparities among women and children in developing countries.

Marian S. Harris

Marian S. Harris, PhD, MSW, LICSW, ACSW is Interim Vice Chancellor for Equity & Inclusion and Professor (School of Social Work & Criminal Justice), University of Washington Tacoma, and Adjunct Professor, University of Washington, School of Social Work, Seattle, WA. Dr. Harris received her PhD from Smith College School for Social Work and completed a two-year NIMH Post-Doctoral Training Program at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Social Work. She serves on the WA State Children’s Justice Task Force, Board of Directors, Washington State Society for Clinical Social Work and is a volunteer partner with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, Alexandria, VA. She is a former Faculty Associate, University of Chicago, Chapin Hall Center for Children, former Consultant Reviewer for the U.S. Children’s Bureau, and Inaugural Co-Chair, WA State Racial Disproportionality Advisory Committee. Dr. Harris is a nationally and internationally known child welfare researcher and social justice advocate and has received several teaching, research and practice awards throughout her career. She has dedicated her career to supporting vulnerable and oppressed populations with a major focus on children and families involved with the child welfare and other systems including the criminal justice system.

Mi Jin Choi

Mi Jin Choi, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at Texas State University. Her research areas include child maltreatment, childhood adverse experiences, child developmental outcomes, disparities in the child welfare services, and child welfare workforce (child welfare training and trauma-informed self-care). Jangmin Kim, PhD, MSW is an Assistant Professor and the Principal Investigator on the Title IV-E Child Welfare Partnership Program in the School of Social Work at Texas State University. By employing critical and social justice perspectives, his research focuses on organizational change and capacity building to develop a trauma-informed workforce, implement the family-centered practice, and address racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system. His research also focuses on developing transformative cross-system collaboration to provide comprehensive services and promote equality in child and youth outcomes.

Jandel Crutchfield

Dr. Jandel Crutchfield is an assistant professor in the School of Social Work at UTA who earned her PhD in Social Work at Louisiana State University. In her research, Dr. Crutchfield explores underlying contributions to the stagnation in racial and color-based disparities for people of color in all sectors of society, with a primary focus on P-20 education. Her social work practice background is in school social work. With a 1 million dollar grant, the United States Department of Education has funded her most recent project focusing on cross-training graduate students interested in school social work and special education to better serve students in schools.

Rong Bai

Rong Bai is a doctoral candidate at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve University (CWRU). Her overarching research goal is to examine social determinants that contribute to child maltreatment and child welfare system involvement, with an aim to promote child and family well-being. She is particularly interested in the overlap between housing instability and child welfare involvement. Within this agenda, Rong is dedicated to using both quantitative and qualitative methodology to explore the pathways between housing instability and child welfare involvement, and to identify best practices that promote reunification for housing unstable families involved with the child welfare system. During Rong’s doctoral training, she has also been working as a program coordinator with young people who have aged out of foster care.