IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v33y2011i8p1392-1403.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The early home environment and developmental outcomes for young children in the child welfare system

Author

Listed:
  • Harden, Brenda Jones
  • Whittaker, Jessica Vick

Abstract

The quality of the early home environment is predictive of young children's subsequent cognitive, academic, and behavioral functioning. Limited research has focused on the effects of the early caregiving environment on the functioning of young children involved with the child welfare system. This study investigated the influence of children's home environments (i.e., number of children in the home, number of moves the child experienced, level of cognitive stimulation, and level of emotional support) during the first 2Â years of life on their preschool developmental outcomes (i.e., cognition, language, social skills, and behavior problems). As anticipated, a high-quality early home environment promoted the well-being of preschool children who had entered the child welfare system as infants. Children who lived with greater numbers of children incurred more compromised cognitive, language, behavioral, and social outcomes. No significant associations emerged between the total number of placements and developmental outcomes; children who remained in the same home during infancy (typically the birth family home) had more compromised developmental outcomes in every domain except behavioral problems. Both cognitive stimulation and emotional support in the home predicted higher cognitive and language scores, decreased behavioral problems, and increased social skills. Early out-of-home placement and lack of emotional support interacted to predict children's behavioral problems. These findings are considered in the context of extant research and policy relevant to young children in the child welfare system.

Suggested Citation

  • Harden, Brenda Jones & Whittaker, Jessica Vick, 2011. "The early home environment and developmental outcomes for young children in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(8), pages 1392-1403, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:33:y:2011:i:8:p:1392-1403
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740911001319
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    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. Staff, Ilene & Fein, Edith, 1995. "Stability and change: Initial findings in a study of treatment foster care placements," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 17(3), pages 379-389.
    2. Fuller, Tamara L., 2005. "Child safety at reunification: A case-control study of maltreatment recurrence following return home from substitute care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 1293-1306, December.
    3. Scannapieco, Maria & Connell-Carrick, Kelli, 2005. "Focus on the first years: Correlates of substantiation of child maltreatment for families with children 0 to 4," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(12), pages 1307-1323, December.
    4. Barth, Richard P. & Weigensberg, Elizabeth C. & Fisher, Philip A. & Fetrow, Becky & Green, Rebecca L., 2008. "Reentry of elementary aged children following reunification from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 353-364, April.
    5. Ryan, Joseph P. & Testa, Mark F., 2005. "Child maltreatment and juvenile delinquency: Investigating the role of placement and placement instability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(3), pages 227-249, March.
    6. Anne Perry, 2009. "Poverty and health," Communities and Banking, Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, issue Win, pages 17-19.
    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. Harden, Brenda Jones & Duncan, Aimée Drouin & Morrison, Colleen I. & Panlilio, Carlomagno & Clyman, Robert B., 2015. "Compliance and Internalization in Preschool Foster Children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 103-110.
    2. Onayemi, Olayinka Modupe & Aderinto, Adeyinka Abeeden, 2019. "Factors influencing child placement in adoption practices in South Western Nigeria: In the best interest of the child?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 167-174.
    3. Saitadze, Inga, 2021. "Mediating effects of early childhood programs and high quality home environments on the cognitive development of poor children involved in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    4. Perry, Kristin J. & Price, Joseph M., 2018. "Concurrent child history and contextual predictors of children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 84(C), pages 125-136.
    5. Hyunah Kang & Ick-Joong Chung & Sehyeon Oh, 2023. "Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Developmental Outcomes among Korean Kinship Foster Care Children: Gender Differences," Societies, MDPI, vol. 13(9), pages 1-18, August.

    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. Shipe, Stacey L. & Shaw, Terry V. & Betsinger, Sara & Farrell, Jill L., 2017. "Expanding the conceptualization of re-entry: The inter-play between child welfare and juvenile services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 256-262.
    2. Finster, Heather P. & Norwalk, Kate E., 2021. "Characteristics, experiences, and mental health of children who re-enter foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 129(C).
    3. Jedwab, Merav & Shaw, Terry V., 2017. "Predictors of reentry into the foster care system: Comparison of children with and without previous removal experience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 177-184.
    4. Blakey, Joan M. & Leathers, Sonya J. & Lawler, Michelle & Washington, Tyreasa & Natschke, Chiralaine & Strand, Tonya & Walton, Quenette, 2012. "A review of how states are addressing placement stability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(2), pages 369-378.
    5. Davidson, Ryan D. & Tomlinson, Claire S. & Beck, Connie J. & Bowen, Anne M., 2019. "The revolving door of families in the child welfare system: Risk and protective factors associated with families returning," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 100(C), pages 468-479.
    6. Osborn, Alexandra L. & Delfabbro, Paul & Barber, James G., 2008. "The psychosocial functioning and family background of children experiencing significant placement instability in Australian out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(8), pages 847-860, August.
    7. Simmons-Horton, Sherri Y., 2017. "Providing age-appropriate activities for youth in foster care: Policy implementation process in three states," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 82(C), pages 383-391.
    8. Sheerin, Kaitlin M. & Modrowski, Crosby A. & Williamson, Shannon & Kemp, Kathleen A., 2022. "The effect of sexual concerns on placement changes and school transfers for youth in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    9. Narendorf, Sarah C. & Brydon, Daphne M. & Santa Maria, Diane & Bender, Kimberly & Ferguson, Kristin M. & Hsu, Hsun-Ta & Barman-Adhikari, Anamika & Shelton, Jama & Petering, Robin, 2020. "System involvement among young adults experiencing homelessness: Characteristics of four system-involved subgroups and relationship to risk outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 108(C).
    10. Unrau, Yvonne A., 2007. "Research on placement moves: Seeking the perspective of foster children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(1), pages 122-137, January.
    11. Millett, Lina Sapokaite & Ben-David, Vered & Jonson-Reid, Melissa & Echele, Greg & Moussette, Pam & Atkins, Valerie, 2016. "Understanding change among multi-problem families: Learnings from a formative program assessment," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 176-183.
    12. Balsells, Maria Àngels & Pastor, Crescencia & Mateos, Ainoa & Vaquero, Eduard & Urrea, Aida, 2015. "Exploring the needs of parents for achieving reunification: The views of foster children, birth family and social workers in Spain," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 159-166.
    13. Spielfogel, Jill E. & Leathers, Sonya J. & Christian, Errick & McMeel, Lorri S., 2011. "Parent management training, relationships with agency staff, and child mental health: Urban foster parents' perspectives," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(11), pages 2366-2374.
    14. Marshall, Jane Marie & Haight, Wendy L., 2014. "Understanding racial disproportionality affecting African American Youth who cross over from the child welfare to the juvenile justice system: Communication, power, race and social class," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 42(C), pages 82-90.
    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. Barn, Ravinder & Tan, Jo-Pei, 2012. "Foster youth and crime: Employing general strain theory to promote understanding," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 40(3), pages 212-220.
    17. Victor, Bryan G. & Ryan, Joseph P. & Moore, Andrew & Mowbray, Orion & Evangelist, Michael & Perron, Brian E., 2016. "Foster home licensing and risk of reentry to out-of-home care following family reunification," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 112-119.
    18. Yang, Jennifer & McCuish, Evan C. & Corrado, Raymond R., 2017. "Foster care beyond placement: Offending outcomes in emerging adulthood," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 53(C), pages 46-54.
    19. Li, Fenfang & Godinet, Meripa T. & Arnsberger, Pam, 2011. "Protective factors among families with children at risk of maltreatment: Follow up to early school years," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 139-148, January.
    20. Barth, Richard P. & Weigensberg, Elizabeth C. & Fisher, Philip A. & Fetrow, Becky & Green, Rebecca L., 2008. "Reentry of elementary aged children following reunification from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 353-364, April.

    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:33:y:2011:i:8:p:1392-1403. 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.