Outcomes of the Parent Advocacy Initiative in child safety conferences: Placement and repeat maltreatment

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2021.106241Get rights and content

Highlights

  • Participation in the program decreased rates of out-of-home placements of children.

  • Participation in the program increased kinship care placements, when needed.

  • Parent advocacy could impact child placement decisions and improve family outcomes.

Abstract

In the past years, peer support programs in child welfare have been used to increase family participation in the case decision-making, give voice to parents, promote parent engagement with services, and ultimately improve child and family outcomes. These programs employ peers, who are parents with lived child welfare system experience, and who offer advocacy and support to parents presently involved in the system. The current study examined the impact of one such intervention, Parent Advocacy Initiative in Initial Child Safety Conferences at the New York City Administration for Children’s Services, on case outcomes of families served by parent advocates as part of this intervention. A multivariable analysis compared cases receiving the intervention (calendar year 2016; n = 3224) to cases from pre-intervention period—prior to the Initiative implementation (calendar year 2013; n = 5598) and cases not receiving the intervention in 2016 (n = 3450), to determine whether the presence of a parent advocate was associated with positive case outcomes, such as (a) reduced foster care placements and (b) reduced or unchanged rates of repeat indicated maltreatment investigations within six months of initial investigation. The results revealed that the rates of out-of-home placements significantly decreased, and children remained at home at higher rates when a parent advocate was present at the conference. Whenever out-of-home placement was recommended, placements in non-relative foster care significantly decreased and kinship care placements increased. The rate of repeat indicated maltreatment investigations within six months was unchanged. The results demonstrate that parent advocacy could have a significant impact on placement decisions and thus improve the outcomes of children and families. Study implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Introduction

Over the last few years, the number of children in foster care in the U.S. has been on the rise, fluctuating from 414,259 in 2014 to 437,283 in 2018 (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services [U.S. DHHS], 2018). Despite the increase in foster care cases nationally, New York State has experienced a significant decrease over the last few years (from 27,992 in 2011 to 16,325 in 2018); foster care cases also declined in New York City, from 11,750 in 2014 to 8,732 in 2018 (Administration of Children’s Services [ACS], 2018). It has been suggested that these reductions might be linked to an enlarged implementation of evidence-based models and interventions directed towards strengthening families and preventing out-of-home placements (Casey Family Programs, 2017, Ross, 2018).

Child welfare agencies have been trying to decrease the reliance on foster care system by reducing unnecessary removals, providing supports to families to ensure child safety and wellbeing, as well as focusing efforts on prevention of recurring maltreatment through various initiatives (Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2017). For example, peer support programs have been used to increase family participation in the case decision-making, give voice to child welfare-involved parents, and promote parent engagement, which would ultimately improve child and family outcomes (i.e., removals, reunification, repeat maltreatment, etc.) (Cohen & Canan, 2006). These programs employ peers, also known as parent partners or parent advocates (PA), who have had personal experiences with the child welfare system and offer advocacy and support to parents presently involved in the system (Berrick et al., 2011b, Lalayants, 2013, Lalayants, 2014, Rauber, 2009, Rauber, 2010, Summers et al., 2012). Since most parents suspected of child maltreatment lack family support throughout the process of investigation and placement, parent advocates are equipped to provide such support, encouraging participation in services and acting as a connection between professionals and stigmatized parents and as a positive social comparison (Summers et al., 2012). Parents can benefit from having an advocate who could help them understand child welfare and legal system policies and procedures, decipher the professional jargon used by child welfare staff, support and stabilize the child welfare system involvement, and concentrate on goals they need to achieve. Because parent advocates have been through the child welfare system, some struggled with substance abuse, and felt the stigma, social isolation, and the range of emotions related to the child welfare system involvement, they are able to exhibit a unique ability to understand the perspectives of parents and promote family engagement (Lalayants, 2013, Lalayants, 2014, Lalayants et al., 2016).

Section snippets

Parent advocacy in child welfare

Although the use of parent advocates or parent partners in child welfare, and more specifically in child protection, is relatively new and there is a lack of research, some benefits of such programs and their impact on child and family outcomes have been discussed in the literature.

Overall, parent partner programs target proximal outcomes such as parental empowerment and engagement in services, leading to more salient, distal outcomes including permanency and reunification (Berrick, Cohen et

New York City Parent Advocacy Initiative in initial child safety conferences

In New York City the process of child maltreatment investigation sometimes results in the removal of children in order to keep them safe from future harm. Such placements, while addressing immediate concerns for safety may engender side effects such as traumatic stress in the short term and result in poor longer-term outcomes. The research has confirmed that children who have been separated from their parents are more likely to experience a wide range of difficulties such as attachment

Study purpose

This paper originated from a larger evaluation study of the Parent Advocacy Initiative in Initial Child Safety Conferences at the New York City ACS and was approved by the Research Review Committee of ACS, the New York State Office of Children and Family Services Bureau of Evaluation and Research, and the Institutional Review Board of the researchers’ university.

The purpose of the current study was to determine whether the presence of a PA was associated with positive case outcomes, such as (a)

Design and procedures

The study examined cases receiving PA intervention over a period of the 2016 calendar year. For comparison purposes, PA intervention cases were compared to (1) pre-intervention cases from the 2013 calendar year and (2) cases from 2016 that did not receive the PA intervention. Participants were tracked for six months after the CSC for the purposes of the analysis of the subsequent repeat maltreatment outcome.

Data for this study were drawn from three electronic administrative datasets routinely

Child and caregiver demographics

The average age and gender of children was similar in cases receiving the PA intervention and comparison cases in 2013 (M = 7.93, SD = 5.67, 51.5% male vs. M = 8.18, SD = 5.93, 50.9% male, p = .049 and 0.093, respectively). Race/ethnicity distribution was significantly different, particularly with respect to African/Americans (39.6% vs. 47.5%), Hispanics (40.0% vs. 35.9%) and Whites (7.6% vs. 6.7%, p < .001). Among caregivers, the average age was similar (M = 36, SD = 11.71, vs. M = 36.13, SD

Discussion

The current study aimed to examine the efficacy of a parent partner program, Parent Advocacy Initiative in Initial Child Safety Conferences, and address gaps in research on the parent partner programs in attaining child welfare outcomes, such as removals/placements and rates of investigations of indicated repeat maltreatment within six months. Our findings add to the growing body of literature on the effects of parent partner programs on child and family outcomes. More specifically, the study

Conclusion

The study of the New York City ACS Parent Advocacy Initiative in Initial Child Safety Conferences suggests that the inclusion of a parent advocate in the initial child safety conferences promotes a family-centered practice that leads to decreased out-of-home placements. The study results provide preliminary evidence that parent partner programs in the initial stages of child welfare involvement can prevent child removals from home and encourage the use of kinship placements, when removal is

CRediT authorship contribution statement

Marina Lalayants: Conceptualization, Methodology, Investigation, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Project administration, Funding acquisition. Katarzyna Wyka: Methodology, Formal analysis, Visualization, Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing. Inga Saitadze: Writing – original draft, Writing – review & editing.

Declaration of Competing Interest

The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express great appreciation to the leadership of the New York City Administration for Children’s Services and the study Advisory Committee members for providing support. Special thanks to Sharon Jeon, the research assistant, for rigorous work throughout the various stages of the project. The authors express sincere gratitude to Dr. John Fluke at Kempe Center of the University of Colorado for statistical consulting.

Funding

This evaluation study was funded by the New York City Administration for Children’s Services to the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College at the City University of New York.

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