Department of Sociology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA.
Department of Sociology, Duke University, Durham, NC, USA.
Child Maltreat. 2023 Nov;28(4):661-672. doi: 10.1177/10775595221125456. Epub 2022 Oct 2.
Congregate care placement is among the most consequential forms of foster care placement that youth can experience, as it means a removal from both the family of origin and a family setting more broadly. Unfortunately, little research has estimated how common this intervention is. In this article, we use data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System (AFCARS) and synthetic cohort life tables to show what proportion of children ever placed in foster care will ever be placed in congregate care, what proportion of children in the entire population will ever be placed in congregate care, and how these proportions vary by state of residence and race/ethnicity. Our results support four main conclusions. First, roughly 15% of all children ever placed in foster care will experience congregate care placement. Second, among children who will ever be placed in foster care, the risk of congregate care placement peaks at age 16. Third, congregate care placement is highly stratified by race/ethnicity. Finally, there are vast geographic differences in both congregate care placement and ethno-racial disparities therein. Taken together, these findings enhance our understanding of the demography of the child welfare system with implications for research, policy, and practice.
集中照顾安置是青少年可能经历的最具影响力的寄养安置形式之一，因为这意味着他们不仅离开了原生家庭，也离开了更广泛的家庭环境。然而，很少有研究估计这种干预措施有多普遍。在本文中，我们使用来自收养和寄养护理分析报告系统（AFCARS）和综合队列生命表的数据，展示了曾经被安置在寄养家庭中的儿童中有多少比例会被安置在集中照顾机构中，整个人群中有多少比例的儿童会被安置在集中照顾机构中，以及这些比例如何因居住州和种族/族裔而异。我们的研究结果支持以下四个主要结论。首先，大约 15%的所有曾经被安置在寄养家庭中的儿童将经历集中照顾安置。其次，在所有将被安置在寄养家庭中的儿童中，集中照顾安置的风险在 16 岁时达到峰值。第三，集中照顾安置在种族/族裔方面存在明显的分层现象。最后，集中照顾安置和其中的种族差异在地理上存在巨大差异。综上所述，这些发现增强了我们对儿童福利系统人口统计学的理解，对研究、政策和实践具有重要意义。
