IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v54y2015icp20-29.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Are children safer with kin? A comparison of maltreatment risk in out-of-home care

Author

Listed:
  • Font, Sarah A.

Abstract

Safety, or the absence of maltreatment, is the primary mandate of the child protection services (CPS) system, both for children living at home and those living away from home. Yet, few research studies have examined maltreatment in out-of-home care due to the low incidence rate and data limitations. This study used statewide administrative data to estimate the association between placement type and experiencing a maltreatment investigation or substantiation in out-of-home care. Over 6% of informal TANF-funded kinship placements experienced an investigation alleging maltreatment by an out-of-home caregiver, compared with just over 3% for formal kinship care and non-relative foster care. However, the monthly risk of maltreatment was lowest in informal kinship care because these placements tended to endure longer before maltreatment occurred. Substantiated maltreatment during an out-of-home placement was rare across all placement types. For both investigated and substantiated maltreatment, risk was highest in the first 3months.

Suggested Citation

  • Font, Sarah A., 2015. "Are children safer with kin? A comparison of maltreatment risk in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 20-29.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:54:y:2015:i:c:p:20-29
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.04.012
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740915001383
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2015.04.012?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Ehrle, Jennifer & Geen, Rob, 2002. "Kin and non-kin foster care--findings from a National Survey," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 15-35.
    2. Slack, Kristen Shook & Berger, Lawrence M. & DuMont, Kimberly & Yang, Mi-Youn & Kim, Bomi & Ehrhard-Dietzel, Susan & Holl, Jane L., 2011. "Risk and protective factors for child neglect during early childhood: A cross-study comparison," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1354-1363, August.
    3. Goodman, Catherine Chase & Potts, Marilyn & Pasztor, Eileen Mayers & Scorzo, Dolores, 2004. "Grandmothers as kinship caregivers: private arrangements compared to public child welfare oversight," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 287-305, March.
    4. Bolton, F. G. & Laner, Roy H. & Gai, Dorothy S., 1981. "For better or worse?: Foster parents and foster children in an officially reported child maltreatment population," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 3(1-2), pages 37-53.
    5. Harden, Brenda Jones & Clyman, Robert B. & Kriebel, Dawn K. & Lyons, Mary E., 2004. "Kith and kin care: parental attitudes and resources of foster and relative caregivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 657-671, July.
    6. Poertner, John & Bussey, Marian & Fluke, John, 1999. "How safe are out-of-home placements?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 549-563, July.
    7. Dolan, Melissa M. & Casanueva, Cecilia & Smith, Keith R. & Bradley, Robert H., 2009. "Parenting and the home environment provided by grandmothers of children in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 784-796, July.
    8. Lawler, Michael J., 2008. "Maltreated children's emotional availability with kin and non-kin foster mothers: A sociobiological perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1131-1143, October.
    9. Berrick, Jill Duerr & Barth, Richard P. & Needell, Barbara, 1994. "A comparison of kinship foster homes and foster family homes: Implications for kinship foster care as family preservation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 33-63.
    10. Beeman, Sandra K. & Kim, Hyungmo & Bullerdick, Susan K., 2000. "Factors affecting placement of children in kinship and nonkinship foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(1), pages 37-54, January.
    11. Kim, Jinseok, 2009. "Type-specific intergenerational transmission of neglectful and physically abusive parenting behaviors among young parents," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 761-767, July.
    12. DePanfilis, Diane & Girvin, Heather, 2005. "Investigating child maltreatment in out-of-home care: Barriers to effective decision-making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(4), pages 353-374, April.
    13. Berger, Lawrence M., 2004. "Income, family structure, and child maltreatment risk," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(8), pages 725-748, August.
    14. Iglehart, Alfreda P., 1994. "Kinship foster care: Placement, service, and outcome issues," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 16(1-2), pages 107-122.
    15. Spencer, J. William & Knudsen, Dean D., 1992. "Out-of-home maltreatment: An analysis of risk in various settings for children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 14(6), pages 485-492.
    16. Strozier, Anne L. & Krisman, Kerry, 2007. "Capturing caregiver data: An examination of kinship care custodial arrangements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(2), pages 226-246, February.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Raz, Mical, 2020. "Calling child protectives services is a form of community policing that should be used appropriately: Time to engage mandatory reporters as to the harmful effects of unnecessary reports," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 110(C).
    2. Gable, Sara & Holliday, Amelia & Zars, Jonathon & Simelus, Sonita & Nickell, Angela & Anderson, Bradd, 2024. "Intergenerational conflict, contact with biological parents, and child functioning in kinship caregiver families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    3. Lin, Ching-Hsuan, 2018. "The relationships between child well-being, caregiving stress, and social engagement among informal and formal kinship care families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 203-216.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Wu, Qi & White, Kevin R. & Coleman, Kanisha L., 2015. "Effects of kinship care on behavioral problems by child age: A propensity score analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 57(C), pages 1-8.
    2. Berrick, Jill Duerr & Hernandez, Julia, 2016. "Developing consistent and transparent kinship care policy and practice: State mandated, mediated, and independent care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 68(C), pages 24-33.
    3. Dolan, Melissa M. & Casanueva, Cecilia & Smith, Keith R. & Bradley, Robert H., 2009. "Parenting and the home environment provided by grandmothers of children in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(7), pages 784-796, July.
    4. Lin, Ching-Hsuan, 2018. "The relationships between child well-being, caregiving stress, and social engagement among informal and formal kinship care families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 93(C), pages 203-216.
    5. Xu, Yanfeng & Bright, Charlotte Lyn, 2018. "Children's mental health and its predictors in kinship and non-kinship foster care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 89(C), pages 243-262.
    6. Fechter-Leggett, Molly O. & O'Brien, Kirk, 2010. "The effects of kinship care on adult mental health outcomes of alumni of foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(2), pages 206-213, February.
    7. Lawler, Michael J., 2008. "Maltreated children's emotional availability with kin and non-kin foster mothers: A sociobiological perspective," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(10), pages 1131-1143, October.
    8. del Valle, Jorge F. & López, Mónica & Montserrat, Carme & Bravo, Amaia, 2009. "Twenty years of foster care in Spain: Profiles, patterns and outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(8), pages 847-853, August.
    9. Coleman, Kanisha L. & Wu, Qi, 2016. "Kinship care and service utilization: A review of predisposing, enabling, and need factors," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 201-210.
    10. Koh, Eun, 2010. "Permanency outcomes of children in kinship and non-kinship foster care: Testing the external validity of kinship effects," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 389-398, March.
    11. Littlewood, Kerry A. & Strozier, Anne L. & Whittington, Danielle, 2014. "Kin as Teachers: An early childhood education and support intervention for kinship families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 1-9.
    12. Swann, Christopher A. & Sylvester, Michelle Sheran, 2006. "Does the child welfare system serve the neediest kinship care families?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(10), pages 1213-1228, October.
    13. Cuddeback, Gary S., 2004. "Kinship family foster care: a methodological and substantive synthesis of research," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 623-639, July.
    14. Hegar, Rebecca L. & Rosenthal, James A., 2009. "Kinship care and sibling placement: Child behavior, family relationships, and school outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(6), pages 670-679, June.
    15. Ryan, Joseph P. & Hong, Jun Sung & Herz, Denise & Hernandez, Pedro M., 2010. "Kinship foster care and the risk of juvenile delinquency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1823-1830, December.
    16. Lovett, Nicholas & Xue, Yuhan, 2020. "Family first or the kindness of strangers? Foster care placements and adult outcomes," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    17. Liao, Minli & White, Kevin R., 2014. "Post-permanency service needs, service utilization, and placement discontinuity for kinship versus non-kinship families," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 370-378.
    18. Coakley, Tanya M. & Cuddeback, Gary & Buehler, Cheryl & Cox, Mary Ellen, 2007. "Kinship foster parents' perceptions of factors that promote or inhibit successful fostering," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 92-109, January.
    19. Zinn, Andrew, 2012. "Kinship foster family type and placement discharge outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 602-614.
    20. Mennen, Ferol E. & Trickett, Penelope K., 2007. "Mental health needs of urban children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(9), pages 1220-1234, September.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:54:y:2015:i:c:p:20-29. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.