IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v50y2015icp3-11.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The role of race, socioeconomic status, and System of Care services in placement decision-making

Author

Listed:
  • Sieracki, Jeff H.
  • Fuller, Anne K.
  • Leon, Scott C.
  • Jhe Bai, Grace
  • Bryant, Fred

Abstract

A 2×2×2 experimental design was used to examine the potential influence of race (African American vs. Caucasian), socioeconomic status of the foster care environment (Low vs. High), and System of Care (SOC) services (System of Care/Wraparound Services vs. Treatment as Usual) on social workers' placement decisions within the child welfare system. Two hundred thirty-one social workers from Illinois (86.8% female, 85.4% European-American; mean age of 50.6years) read a vignette of a child in foster care and were asked to recommend whether the child should remain in his current community-based foster care placement or be stepped up to a residential placement. Workers then completed a demographic form and rated the child's clinical and treatment needs. No main effects of race, SES of the foster care environment, or treatment history on placement decisions were found. Subsequent exploratory analyses indicated that clinical factors, environmental factors, participants' experience in child welfare, and vignette condition interacted in nuanced ways to predict placement recommendations. While clinical variables were the primary factors that social workers considered when making placement decisions, the decisions were also be influenced by perceptions of the availability of community and family resources. Future research should consider using more open-ended approaches in order to further assess the processes by which social workers make placement decisions in the child welfare system.

Suggested Citation

  • Sieracki, Jeff H. & Fuller, Anne K. & Leon, Scott C. & Jhe Bai, Grace & Bryant, Fred, 2015. "The role of race, socioeconomic status, and System of Care services in placement decision-making," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 3-11.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:50:y:2015:i:c:p:3-11
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.12.013
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740914004253
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.12.013?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. Courtney, Mark E., 1998. "Correlates of social worker decisions to seek treatment-oriented out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 20(4), pages 281-304, 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. Grumi, Serena & Milani, Luca & Di Blasio, Paola, 2017. "Risk assessment in a multicultural context: Risk and protective factors in the decision to place children in foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 69-75.

    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. Chor, Ka Ho Brian & McClelland, Gary M. & Weiner, Dana A. & Jordan, Neil & Lyons, John S., 2012. "Predicting outcomes of children in residential treatment: A comparison of a decision support algorithm and a multidisciplinary team decision model," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2345-2352.
    2. Lee, Bethany R. & Shaw, Terry V. & Gove, Britni & Hwang, Jeongha, 2010. "Transitioning from group care to family care: Child welfare worker assessments," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(12), pages 1770-1777, December.
    3. Leloux-Opmeer, Harmke & Kuiper, Chris H.Z. & Swaab, Hanna T. & Scholte, Evert M., 2017. "Children referred to foster care, family-style group care, and residential care: (How) do they differ?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 1-9.
    4. Courtney, Mark E., 2000. "Research needed to improve the prospects for children in out-of-home placement," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 22(9-10), pages 743-761.
    5. Palareti, Laura & Berti, Chiara, 2009. "Different ecological perspectives for evaluating residential care outcomes: Which window for the black box?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 31(10), pages 1080-1085, October.
    6. 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.
    7. Ryan, Joseph P. & Marshall, Jane Marie & Herz, Denise & Hernandez, Pedro M., 2008. "Juvenile delinquency in child welfare: Investigating group home effects," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1088-1099, September.
    8. Dworsky, Amy, 2005. "The economic self-sufficiency of Wisconsin's former foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 27(10), pages 1085-1118, October.

    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:50:y:2015:i:c:p:3-11. 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.