Winters Drew E, Pierce Barbara J, Imburgia Teresa M
Indiana University School of Social Work, 902 West New York Street, Indianapolis, IN 46205, United States.
Indiana University School of Medicine, 340 W 10th St #62000, Indianapolis, IN 46202, United States.
Child Youth Serv Rev. 2020 Nov;118. doi: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105362.
Experiencing poverty and financial difficulties are significant barriers to outcomes of permanency and placement stability. This is particularly true for children who are in out of home placements. The provision of concrete services is intended to meet concrete needs of families to address this barrier. However, little is known about how concrete services meet the needs of families in need of these services or if the use of concrete services is a viable treatment for children who are in out of home placements.
The present study examined differences between those who received and those who did not receive concrete services on factors of stability, child and caregiver traumatic stress, number of placements, and current out of home placement. Regression analysis examined the association between amount of concrete service spending and permanency. Then to test concrete services as an intervention for children in a current out of home placement, we used propensity score matching to match participants on characteristics that predicted whether they would receive concrete services. We then ran a hierarchical regression to test the treatment condition of concrete services with children who are in a current out of home placement.
Participants who received concrete services were at a much higher level of need with significantly higher levels of traumatic stress and number of placements and lower levels of placement stability. The amount of money spent on concrete services was associated with increases in placement stability. And, children in a current out of home placement had an increase in placement stability when they received concrete services.
The present study is the first to evidence concrete service as a treatment for placement stability for children in current out of home placements. Spending on concrete services in addition to child welfare services improves a child's current placement stability. This is an important finding with implications for improving child welfare services' approach to those in their care with financial burdens.
经历贫困和经济困难是实现永久性安置和安置稳定性的重大障碍。对于那些不在家庭环境中安置的儿童来说尤其如此。提供具体服务旨在满足家庭的具体需求，以克服这一障碍。然而，对于具体服务如何满足需要这些服务的家庭的需求，或者使用具体服务是否是对不在家庭环境中安置的儿童的可行治疗方法，我们知之甚少。
本研究考察了接受和未接受具体服务的儿童在稳定性、儿童和照顾者创伤应激、安置次数以及当前不在家庭环境中安置等因素上的差异。回归分析检验了具体服务支出金额与永久性之间的关联。然后，为了测试具体服务作为对当前不在家庭环境中安置的儿童的一种干预措施，我们使用倾向得分匹配法，根据预测参与者是否会接受具体服务的特征对他们进行匹配。然后，我们进行了分层回归，以测试具体服务对当前不在家庭环境中安置的儿童的治疗效果。
接受具体服务的参与者需求水平要高得多，创伤应激水平和安置次数显著更高，安置稳定性水平更低。在具体服务上花费的金额与安置稳定性的提高相关。而且，当前不在家庭环境中安置的儿童在接受具体服务时，安置稳定性有所提高。
本研究首次证明具体服务可作为对当前不在家庭环境中安置的儿童的安置稳定性的一种治疗方法。除了儿童福利服务外，在具体服务上的支出提高了儿童当前的安置稳定性。这是一项重要发现，对改进儿童福利服务机构照顾有经济负担儿童的方式具有重要意义。
