IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v30y2008i4p388-406.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Market-based disparities in foster care outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Meezan, William
  • McBeath, Bowen

Abstract

Managed care and performance-based contracting in state child welfare systems have appeared as a consequence of the increased attention that federal and state policymakers are paying to system performance and service costs. This study reports findings from a longitudinal natural experiment that examined the effects of a performance-based, managed care contracting mechanism on foster care outcomes. Multivariate analyses identified market-based disparities in some of the outcomes experienced by foster children: controlling for child, family, and caseworker characteristics, children served by agencies with performance-based, managed care contracts were less likely to be reunified and more likely to enter kinship foster homes, when compared to children served by agencies reimbursed through fee-for-service contracts. Analyses also suggested that there were few other variables consistently associated with foster care outcomes. These results call into question the evidentiary basis for the diffusion of managed care and performance-based contracting in the child welfare sector, and suggest that state child welfare systems ensure that foster care placement decisions are influenced more by child and family needs than by financial considerations. In addition, they suggest that managed care and performance-based contracts should include specific financial incentives for family reunification.

Suggested Citation

  • Meezan, William & McBeath, Bowen, 2008. "Market-based disparities in foster care outcomes," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(4), pages 388-406, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:30:y:2008:i:4:p:388-406
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(07)00192-2
    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. 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.
    2. Davis, Inger P. & Landsverk, John & Newton, Rae & Ganger, William, 1996. "Parental visiting and foster care reunification," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 363-382.
    3. Geen, Rob & Berrick, Jill Duerr, 2002. "Kinship care: an evolving service delivery option," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(1-2), pages 1-14.
    4. Green, Beth L. & Rockhill, Anna & Furrer, Carrie, 2007. "Does substance abuse treatment make a difference for child welfare case outcomes? A statewide longitudinal analysis," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 29(4), pages 460-473, April.
    5. Fraser, Mark W. & Walton, Elaine & Lewis, Robert E. & Pecora, Peter J. & Walton, Wendel K., 1996. "An experiment in family reunification: Correlates of outcomes at one-year follow-up," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 335-361.
    6. Landsverk, John & Davis, Inger & Ganger, William & Newton, Rae & Johnson, Ivory, 1996. "Impact of child psychosocial functioning on reunification from out-of-home placement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 447-462.
    7. Wells, Kathleen & Guo, Shenyang, 1999. "Reunification and reentry of foster children," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 21(4), pages 273-294, April.
    8. Wulczyn, Fred W., 2000. "Federal fiscal reform in child welfare services," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 131-159, February.
    9. Raghavan, Ramesh & Leibowitz, Arleen A. & Andersen, Ronald M. & Zima, Bonnie T. & Schuster, Mark A. & Landsverk, John, 2006. "Effects of Medicaid managed care policies on mental health service use among a national probability sample of children in the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 1482-1496, December.
    10. McCullough, Charlotte & Schmitt, Barbara, 2000. "Managed care and privatization: Results of a national survey," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 117-130, February.
    11. Guo, Shenyang, 2005. "Analyzing grouped data with hierarchical linear modeling," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(6), pages 637-652, June.
    12. Courtney, Mark E. & Yin-Ling Irene Wong, 1996. "Comparing the timing of exits from substitute care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 307-334.
    13. 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.
    14. Farmer, Elaine, 1996. "Family reunification with high risk children: Lessons from research," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 403-424.
    15. Festinger, Trudy, 1996. "Going home and returning to foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 18(4-5), pages 383-402.
    16. Iglehart, Alfreda P., 2004. "Kinship foster care: filling the gaps in theory, research, and practice," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(7), pages 613-621, July.
    17. Embry, Richard A. & Buddenhagen, Paul & Bolles, Spencer, 2000. "Managed care and child welfare: Challenges to implementation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 93-116, February.
    18. Miller, Keith A. & Fisher, Philip A. & Fetrow, Becky & Jordan, Kathy, 2006. "Trouble on the journey home: Reunification failures in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 260-274, March.
    19. Jones, Loring, 1998. "The social and family correlates of successful reunification of children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 305-323, May.
    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. Steen, Julie A. & Smith, Sarahlin, 2012. "An organizational view of privatization: Is the private foster care agency superior to the public foster care agency?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(4), pages 851-858.
    2. Garcia, Antonio R. & Circo, Elizabeth & DeNard, Christina & Hernandez, Natalie, 2015. "Barriers and facilitators to delivering effective mental health practice strategies for youth and families served by the child welfare system," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 52(C), pages 110-122.
    3. McBeath, Bowen & Collins-Camargo, Crystal & Chuang, Emmeline & Wells, Rebecca & Bunger, Alicia C. & Jolles, Mónica Pérez, 2014. "New directions for research on the organizational and institutional context of child welfare agencies: Introduction to the symposium on “The Organizational and Managerial Context of Private Child Welf," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 83-92.
    4. Hannah, Gordon & Ray, Marilyn & Wandersman, Abraham & Chien, Victoria H., 2010. "Developing performance-based contracts between agencies and service providers: Results from a Getting To Outcomes support system with social service agencies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1430-1436, October.
    5. McBeath, Bowen & Meezan, William, 2009. "Interorganizational disparities in foster care service provision," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 513-525, May.
    6. McBeath, Bowen & Jolles, Mónica Pérez & Chuang, Emmeline & Bunger, Alicia C. & Collins-Camargo, Crystal, 2014. "Organizational responsiveness to children and families: Findings from a national survey of nonprofit child welfare agencies," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 38(C), pages 123-132.

    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. Kimberlin, Sara E. & Anthony, Elizabeth K. & Austin, Michael J., 2009. "Re-entering foster care: Trends, evidence, and implications," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(4), pages 471-481, April.
    2. Fernandez, Elizabeth & Delfabbro, Paul & Ramia, Ioana & Kovacs, Szilvia, 2019. "Children returning from care: The challenging circumstances of parents in poverty," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 100-111.
    3. van Santen, Eric, 2010. "Predictors of exit type and length of stay in non-kinship family foster care -- The German experience," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(10), pages 1211-1222, October.
    4. Koh, Eun & Testa, Mark F., 2011. "Children discharged from kin and non-kin foster homes: Do the risks of foster care re-entry differ?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1497-1505, September.
    5. Goemans, Anouk & Vanderfaeillie, Johan & Damen, Harm & Pijnenburg, Huub & Van Holen, Frank, 2016. "Reunification of foster children: Factors associated with reunification outcomes in Flanders and the Netherlands," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 70(C), pages 284-292.
    6. 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.
    7. Zinn, Andrew, 2010. "A typology of kinship foster families: Latent class and exploratory analyses of kinship family structure and household composition," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 325-337, March.
    8. Lee, Daniel Hyung Jik & Huerta, Christina & Farmer, Elizabeth M.Z., 2021. "Kinship navigation: Facilitating permanency and equity for youth in child welfare," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    9. Whitaker, Tia, 2011. "Administrative case reviews: Improving outcomes for children in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(9), pages 1683-1708, September.
    10. Pine, Barbara A. & Spath, Robin & Werrbach, Gail B. & Jenson, Cary E. & Kerman, Benjamin, 2009. "A better path to permanency for children in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1135-1143, October.
    11. Akin, Becci A., 2011. "Predictors of foster care exits to permanency: A competing risks analysis of reunification, guardianship, and adoption," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(6), pages 999-1011, June.
    12. 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.
    13. 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.
    14. 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.
    15. Miller, Keith A. & Fisher, Philip A. & Fetrow, Becky & Jordan, Kathy, 2006. "Trouble on the journey home: Reunification failures in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 260-274, March.
    16. Esposito, Tonino & Trocmé, Nico & Chabot, Martin & Collin-Vézina, Delphine & Shlonsky, Aron & Sinha, Vandna, 2014. "Family reunification for placed children in Québec, Canada: A longitudinal study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 278-287.
    17. 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.
    18. McBeath, Bowen & Meezan, William, 2009. "Interorganizational disparities in foster care service provision," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(5), pages 513-525, May.
    19. Katz, Colleen C. & Lalayants, Marina & Phillips, Jon D., 2018. "The role of out-of-home caregivers in the achievement of child welfare permanency," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 65-71.
    20. Courtney, Mark E., 2000. "Managed care and child welfare services: What are the issues?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(2), pages 87-91, February.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:30:y:2008:i:4:p:388-406. 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.