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Keeping it in the family: The impact of a Family Finding intervention on placement, permanency, and well-being outcomes

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  • Leon, Scott C.
  • Saucedo, Deborah J.
  • Jachymiak, Kristin

Abstract

Child-centered recruitment via Family Finding has gained national attention as an approach to search, discover, and engage kin and fictive kin to support the attachment and permanency needs of children in foster care. However, despite its promise it has received scant attention in the empirical literature. The current study compared the outcomes of a front-end Family Finding intervention (n=196) and a comparison group (n=262) among children in foster care in Cook County Illinois between the ages of 6 and 13. Results showed that there were no differences between the intervention and comparison group on reunification rates, placement stability, or on longitudinal externalizing behavior and internalizing symptoms. However, the intervention found close to 75% more relatives than the control group, and many of these relatives were significant figures in the children's lives. The intervention was also associated with a higher proportion of relative placements to total placements for a subgroup of children with five or more placements. Further, the effect of the intervention on this proportion (relative placements to total placements) was mediated by the greater number of relatives found in the intervention. Finally, the intervention was associated with relatively better Concurrent Planning. These results suggest that Family Finding has the potential to impact proximal outcomes related to discovery, engagement and planning but is currently not impacting more distal outcomes such as permanency and well-being. Family Finding approaches should continue to innovate, possibly through integration with psychosocial interventions, to affect more distal variables such as well-being outcomes.

Suggested Citation

  • Leon, Scott C. & Saucedo, Deborah J. & Jachymiak, Kristin, 2016. "Keeping it in the family: The impact of a Family Finding intervention on placement, permanency, and well-being outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 163-170.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:70:y:2016:i:c:p:163-170
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.09.020
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Lu, Yuhwa Eva & Landsverk, John & Ellis-Macleod, Elissa & Newton, Rae & Ganger, William & Johnson, Ivory, 2004. "Race, ethnicity, and case outcomes in child protective services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 447-461, May.
    2. 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.
    3. Anna Aizer & Joseph J. Doyle, 2015. "Juvenile Incarceration, Human Capital, and Future Crime: Evidence from Randomly Assigned Judges," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 130(2), pages 759-803.
    4. McWey, Lenore M. & Acock, Alan & Porter, Breanne E., 2010. "The impact of continued contact with biological parents upon the mental health of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1338-1345, October.
    5. Landsman, Miriam J. & Boel-Studt, Shamra & Malone, Kelli, 2014. "Results from a family finding experiment," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 62-69.
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    1. Semanchin Jones, Annette, 2017. "Youth Connections Scale-Child Version pilot study: Adapted tool for children in out-of-home placement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 450-455.
    2. Osborne, Jennifer & Hindt, Lauren A. & Lutz, Nathan & Hodgkinson, Nicole & Leon, Scott C., 2021. "Placement stability among children in kinship and non-kinship foster placements across multiple placements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 126(C).
    3. Smith, Annie & Peled, Maya & Horton, Katie & Martin, Stephanie, 2023. "Engaging care leavers as youth researchers to assess the feasibility of a family finding model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

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