Engaging parents in foster care services: A longitudinal examination of the relationships between parent engagement, children's placement stability, and family reunification
type: CreativeWork
description: 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 placeme…
abstract: 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 placeme…
author: Dunkerley, Stacy
language: en
keywords: Social work, child welfare, foster care, parent engagement, permanency, placement stability, reunification
date published: 2021-05-31
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:46:17Z
provider: University of Kansas
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Kansas

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: https://hdl.handle.net/1808/36360