Family treatment court participation and permanency in a rural setting: Outcomes from a rigorous quasi ‐experiment

This study used treatment and matched comparison data to test foster care exit patterns of families with children in foster care due to parental substance use. Treatmen t group data were collected on a sample of 91 children with open dependency cases in an integrated FTC in a rural Midwestern town. Propensity score nearest neighbour one‐to‐two matching was used to identify a comparison group of 146 children. Findings suggest that FTC participation significantly influenced foster care exits. Survival analyses revealed that FTC children were 170% more likely to reunify, and 58% more likely to achieve permanency, than comparison cases. The effect of FTC participation on likelihood of reunification and likelihood of permanency was stronger when models estimat ed outcomes from FTC start date, rather than child removal date. Implications for social work practice, research, and education are discussed.
Source: Child and Family Social Work - Category: Child Development Authors: Tags: ORIGINAL ARTICLE Source Type: research