A better way to reduce child maltreatment
Program results in 17% reduction in foster care use, study finds

Date:
April 19, 2022
Source:
Ohio State University
Summary:
A first-of-its-kind national study has found that a special
program adopted in many states to help some families at risk of
child maltreatment has been surprisingly successful.



FULL STORY ==========================================================================
A first-of-its-kind national study has found that a special program
adopted in many states to help some families at risk of child maltreatment
has been surprisingly successful.


==========================================================================
The study found that states with what is called "differential response"
(DR) programs had about 19% fewer substantiated reports of child
maltreatment, 25% fewer substantiated reports of neglect and a 17%
reduction in using foster care services when compared to states without
DR programs.

The success of DR in reducing the number of children sent to foster
care is especially important, said Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, lead
author of the study and associate professor of social work at The Ohio
State University.

"In certain situations, foster care is necessary to protect children
from harm.

However, it is also costly from human and societal perspectives and some
states have been creative in finding ways to keep families together," Johnson-Motoyama said.

"We found differential response programs may be getting families the
resources they need to prevent foster care entry." The study was
published recently in the journal Child Maltreatment.



========================================================================== Normally, when a state's Child Protective Services (CPS) agency learns
about children who may be in danger, it triggers investigations that can
lead to court orders and a more legalistic path, Johnson-Motoyama said.

Differential response was developed as an alternative pathway for CPS
workers to help families who came to their attention but were at lower
risk of child maltreatment.

"These families have an opportunity to receive voluntary services and
to receive referrals to community agencies that may be able to provide assistance," she said.

The assistance could be in the form of links to organizations that help
with housing, food, teaching parenting skills and other resources.

When the researchers started this work, they weren't planning to focus
on differential response programs. They originally were analyzing the
effect of social safety net policies in the United States and their
impact on preventing child maltreatment.



==========================================================================
But when they took differential response programs into account as
they analyzed their data, the impact of the programs stood out, Johnson-Motoyama said.

"What was surprising to us was that these programs emerged as really
important protective factors for children in all our analyses. We decided
we had to take a closer look," she said.

The researchers analyzed data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect
Data System from 2004 to 2017. They harnessed variations in when states implemented differential response programs to compare substantiated
reports of maltreatment and neglect and foster care placements in states
with and without DR programs.

Over the study period, 24 states and the District of Columbia used DR
at some point in time.

The positive findings regarding the success of differential response
programs stood out even after the researchers took into account a wide
variety of other factors that could have been related, including whether
states that had DR programs also had more generous social safety net
programs.

Johnson-Motoyama said the data didn't allow the researchers to determine exactly why differential response programs were so successful. But they
do have some ideas about what might be happening.

She noted that most of the families who encounter Child Protective
Services are poor and may face problems with housing, food, child care
and mental health, among other issues.

In the traditional pathway, families may face court orders to participate
in various services if they want to keep their children out of foster
care.

"Sometimes these court-ordered services can set families up to fail. They
mean well, but they may not be feasible to complete on the timelines of
the child welfare system given a family's limited resources," she said.

"Some parents can end up losing their child, simply because they couldn't fulfill the court-ordered plan." In contrast, under differential response programs, CPS employees work with families to develop voluntary plans
that help them meet their needs and keep their children.

"Typically, these services are tailored to fit the family's needs. This contrasts with court-ordered services, which may be one size fits all
depending on the jurisdiction," Johnson-Motoyama said.

The results show, she said, that differential response is worth
investigating further as states consider ways of reducing foster care
entry.

The study was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Other authors were Rebecca Phillips and Oliver Beer of Ohio State,
Donna Ginther of the University of Kansas and Lisa Merkel-Holguin and
John Fluke of the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.


========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Ohio_State_University. Original
written by Jeff Grabmeier. Note: Content may be edited for style and
length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Michelle Johnson-Motoyama, Donna K. Ginther, Rebecca Phillips,
Oliver W.

J. Beer, Lisa Merkel-Holguin, John Fluke. Differential Response
and the Reduction of Child Maltreatment and Foster Care Services
Utilization in the U.S. From 2004 to 2017. Child Maltreatment,
2022; 107755952110657 DOI: 10.1177/10775595211065761 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2022/04/220419103203.htm

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