Engaging parents in foster care services: A longitudinal examination of the relationships between parent engagement, children's placement stability, and family reunification
The primary goal for most children who enter foster care is reunification with their families. Federal policy requires reasonable efforts be made to support successful reunification by offering services to parents and children to mitigate the safety concerns that led to a child’s removal from the home. Despite the reasonable efforts mandate, many families struggle to achieve reunification within federal timelines, which can lead to negative outcomes for youth. The policy focus on timely reunification for families emphasizes the need to ensure parents are engaged in services swiftly and effectively. The purpose of this study was to investigate the relationships between parent engagement and the short-term outcome of children’s placement stability and the long-term outcome of family reunification. Using Platt’s (2012) integrated model of parental engagement and Yatchmenoff’s (2005) conceptual framework of parent engagement to guide the inquiry, this study used parent engagement survey data collected early in a family’s foster care involvement (i.e., 30 days) and later in a family’s foster care involvement (i.e., 6 months) matched with children’s administrative foster care data to examine these relationships. Parent engagement data were collected using the Client Engagement in Child Protective Services – Short Form (CECPS – Short Form; Yatchmenoff, 2005). This exploratory study included 341 participants at Time 1 and 113 participants at Time 2. Data were analyzed using (a) logistic regression to answer research questions regarding parent engagement and placement stability and (b) survival analysis to answer research questions regarding parent engagement and reunification. Results suggest later parent engagement is positively associated with higher rates of reunification and shorter time to reunification. Engagement subscales of working relationship and trust at Time 2 were positively associated with reunification. Early parent engagement was not associated with placement stability or reunification. The engagement subscale of working relationship was negatively associated with placement stability at Time 2. Other covariates were significantly associated with placement stability with number of prior foster care episodes having a negative association with placement stability at Time 1 and Time 2, and parent substance use having a positive association with placement stability at Time 2. Child race/ethnicity and child disability were positively associated with reunification at Time 2. This study has implications for social work theory, research, practice, and policy. Implications for social work theory include adding support for the use of Platt’s (2012) integrated model of parental engagement in child welfare services as a conceptual framework to guide future inquiry. Research implications include identifying that parent engagement in child welfare services is dynamic, requiring future studies to employ longitudinal approaches when investigating engagement in this setting. The primary practice implication of this study is that child welfare professionals should be trained and supported in using effective strategies for engaging parents in the child welfare context. Policy implications include investing in programs that enhance parent engagement, such as family teaming models or parent partner programs.
Social work, child welfare, foster care, parent engagement, permanency, placement stability, reunification
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