IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v72y2017icp91-99.html

The impact of income on reunification among families with children in out-of-home care

Author

Listed:
  • Lee, JoAnn S.
  • Romich, Jennifer L.
  • Kang, Ji Young
  • Hook, Jennifer L.
  • Marcenko, Maureen O.

Abstract

Income appears to be associated with faster time to family reunification. The observed connection between income and reunification, however, may be causal in nature or the relationship may be an issue of selection, in that other underlying factors explain both income and family safety and stability. We examine the causal role that the source of income plays in reunification. We use administrative data on primary caregivers of children placed in out-of-home care in Washington State from 2000 through 2007 (N=15,159) matched with public economic support and employment data linked by the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) Integrated Client Database (ICDB). Using instrumental variable analysis, we estimated the effect of the amount of earnings and the amount of cash benefits on reunification. We used county unemployment rates and county food stamp participation rates as instruments. We find modest and inconsistent results that suggest higher earnings are associated with lower likelihood of reunification. We find no consistent evidence linking cash assistance to reunification.

Suggested Citation

  • Lee, JoAnn S. & Romich, Jennifer L. & Kang, Ji Young & Hook, Jennifer L. & Marcenko, Maureen O., 2017. "The impact of income on reunification among families with children in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 91-99.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:72:y:2017:i:c:p:91-99
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.10.020
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740916303413
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2016.10.020?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

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cancian, Maria & Cook, Steven T. & Seki, Mai & Wimer, Lynn, 2017. "Making parents pay: The unintended consequences of charging parents for foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 72(C), pages 100-110.
    2. Peter Gottschalk & Robert Moffitt, 2009. "The Rising Instability of U.S. Earnings," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 23(4), pages 3-24, Fall.
    3. Kortenkamp, Katherine & Geen, Rob & Stagner, Matthew, 2004. "The role of welfare and work in predicting foster care reunification rates for children of welfare recipients," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 577-590, June.
    4. Joshua D. Angrist & Alan B. Krueger, 1991. "Estimating the Payoff to Schooling Using the Vietnam-era Draft Lottery," Working Papers 670, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Industrial Relations Section..
    5. Marcenko, Maureen O. & Lyons, Sandra J. & Courtney, Mark, 2011. "Mothers' experiences, resources and needs: The context for reunification," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 431-438, March.
    6. Rigobon, Roberto & Stoker, Thomas M., 2009. "Bias From Censored Regressors," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, American Statistical Association, vol. 27(3), pages 340-353.
    7. repec:mpr:mprres:3697 is not listed on IDEAS
    8. Angrist, Joshua D, 1990. "Lifetime Earnings and the Vietnam Era Draft Lottery: Evidence from Social Security Administrative Records," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 80(3), pages 313-336, June.
    9. Wells, Kathleen & Guo, Shenyang, 2006. "Welfare reform and child welfare outcomes: A multiple-cohort study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(8), pages 941-960, August.
    10. Lesley J. Turner & Sheldon Danziger & Kristin S. Seefeldt, 2006. "Failing the Transition from Welfare to Work: Women Chronically Disconnected from Employment and Cash Welfare," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 87(2), pages 227-249, June.
    11. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2009. "Mostly Harmless Econometrics: An Empiricist's Companion," Economics Books, Princeton University Press, edition 1, number 8769, December.
    12. Wells, Kathleen & Guo, Shenyang, 2003. "Mothers' Welfare and Work Income and Reunification with Children in Foster Care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 25(3), pages 203-224, March.
    13. Courtney, Mark E. & Hook, Jennifer L., 2012. "Timing of exits to legal permanency from out-of-home care: The importance of systems and implications for assessing institutional accountability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(12), pages 2263-2272.
    14. Ehrle, Jennifer & Andrews Scarcella, Cynthia & Geen, Robert, 2004. "Teaming up: collaboration between welfare and child welfare agencies since welfare reform," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(3), pages 265-285, March.
    15. Keegan Eamon, Mary & Kopels, Sandra, 2004. "`For reasons of poverty': court challenges to child welfare practices and mandated programs," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 26(9), pages 821-836, September.
    16. 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.
    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. Kenny, Kathleen S. & Barrington, Clare, 2018. "“People just don't look at you the same way”: Public stigma, private suffering and unmet social support needs among mothers who use drugs in the aftermath of child removal," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 86(C), pages 209-216.

    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. Matthew A. Kraft, 2014. "How to Make Additional Time Matter: Integrating Individualized Tutorials into an Extended Day," Education Finance and Policy, MIT Press, vol. 10(1), pages 81-116, November.
    2. Haight, Wendy & Marshall, Jane & Woolman, Joanna, 2015. "The Child Protection Clinic: A mixed method evaluation of parent legal representation," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 7-17.
    3. Tonino Esposito & Ashleigh Delaye & Martin Chabot & Nico Trocmé & David Rothwell & Sonia Hélie & Marie-Joelle Robichaud, 2017. "The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(9), pages 1-15, September.
    4. 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.
    5. Eva Deuchert & Martin Huber, 2017. "A Cautionary Tale About Control Variables in IV Estimation," Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Department of Economics, University of Oxford, vol. 79(3), pages 411-425, June.
    6. 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.
    7. Marcenko, Maureen O. & Lyons, Sandra J. & Courtney, Mark, 2011. "Mothers' experiences, resources and needs: The context for reunification," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 431-438, March.
    8. Wood, S. & Scourfield, J. & Stabler, L. & Addis, S. & Wilkins, D. & Forrester, D. & Brand, S.L., 2022. "How might changes to family income affect the likelihood of children being in out-of-home care? Evidence from a realist and qualitative rapid evidence assessment of interventions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    9. Manuel Denzer, 2019. "Estimating Causal Effects in Binary Response Models with Binary Endogenous Explanatory Variables - A Comparison of Possible Estimators," Working Papers 1916, Gutenberg School of Management and Economics, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz.
    10. Joshua D. Angrist & Guido W. Imbens & D.B. Rubin, 1993. "Identification of Causal Effects Using Instrumental Variables," NBER Technical Working Papers 0136, National Bureau of Economic Research, Inc.
    11. Sean F. Reardon & Fatih Unlu & Pei Zhu & Howard S. Bloom, 2014. "Bias and Bias Correction in Multisite Instrumental Variables Analysis of Heterogeneous Mediator Effects," Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, , vol. 39(1), pages 53-86, February.
    12. Peter Hull & Michal Kolesár & Christopher Walters, 2022. "Labor by design: contributions of David Card, Joshua Angrist, and Guido Imbens," Scandinavian Journal of Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 124(3), pages 603-645, July.
    13. Wei, Wei & Young, Alex, 2025. "Beyond Russell reconstitution: A re-examination of methodologies for natural experiments," Journal of Corporate Finance, Elsevier, vol. 91(C).
    14. Imbens, Guido W., 2014. "Instrumental Variables: An Econometrician's Perspective," IZA Discussion Papers 8048, IZA Network @ LISER.
    15. Cornelissen, Thomas & Dustmann, Christian & Raute, Anna & Schönberg, Uta, 2016. "From LATE to MTE: Alternative methods for the evaluation of policy interventions," Labour Economics, Elsevier, vol. 41(C), pages 47-60.
    16. de Walque, Damien, 2007. "Does education affect smoking behaviors?: Evidence using the Vietnam draft as an instrument for college education," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 877-895, September.
    17. Joshua D. Angrist & Jörn-Steffen Pischke, 2010. "The Credibility Revolution in Empirical Economics: How Better Research Design Is Taking the Con out of Econometrics," Journal of Economic Perspectives, American Economic Association, vol. 24(2), pages 3-30, Spring.
    18. Kate Baldwin & Rikhil R. Bhavnani, 2013. "Ancillary Experiments: Opportunities and Challenges," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-024, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    19. Carlos Dobkin & Reza Shabani, 2009. "The Health Effects Of Military Service: Evidence From The Vietnam Draft," Economic Inquiry, Western Economic Association International, vol. 47(1), pages 69-80, January.
    20. Rohlfs Chris, 2012. "The Economic Cost of Conscription and an Upper Bound on the Value of a Statistical Life: Hedonic Estimates from Two Margins of Response to the Vietnam Draft," Journal of Benefit-Cost Analysis, De Gruyter, vol. 3(3), pages 1-37, August.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;

    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:72:y:2017:i:c:p:91-99. 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.