The influence of Decision-making ecology on placement into foster care

Jessica Strolin-Goltzman and Hannah Holbrook

Children and Youth Services Review, 2023, vol. 148, issue C

Abstract: In recent years, the U.S. Administration for Children and Families has shifted policy and practice guidance to encourage state child welfare agencies toward efforts that strengthen family connections, increase primary prevention, and decrease unnecessary removal of children from their parents. However, the field lacks an understanding of the factors influencing removal decisions. Framed by the Decision-making Ecology, the purpose of this study is to explore the individual, organizational, and external variables associated with worker orientation toward family preservation versus child safety. Two hundred and sixty-six child welfare professionals participated in a survey. Findings showed significant differences between the family preservation and child safety/removal groups within individual decision-maker factors (age and STS) and organizational factors (collaboration with family support providers). No differences were found in measured external/community factors. Findings from multivariate logistic regression analysis indicated that regardless of the years of job experience of the worker, being a child welfare worker without clinically significant STS increased the odds of being in the family preservation group by 2.7 times as compared to the child safety/removal group. In addition, participants who reported collaboration with other child-serving community professionals had 4.4 greater odds of being in the family preservation group. Implications for workforce recruitment and development are discussed.

Keywords: Child welfare; Placement decisions; Foster care; Workforce (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740923000774
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:148:y:2023:i:c:s0190740923000774

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.106882

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().