Effectiveness of Family Centered Treatment on reunification and days in care: Propensity score matched sample from Indiana child welfare data. (May 2022)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Pierce, Barbara J.; Muzzey, Finneran K.; Bloomquist, Kori R.; Imburgia, Teresa M.
• Is Part Of: Children and youth services review. Volume 136(2022)
• Publication Date: 2022-05
• Subjects: Family centered treatment -- Program evaluation -- Child welfare -- Propensity score matching; Social work with children -- Periodicals; Social work with youth -- Periodicals; Adolescent -- Periodicals; Child Welfare -- Periodicals; Social Work -- Periodicals; Service social aux enfants -- Périodiques; Service social à la jeunesse -- Périodiques; Electronic journals; 362.705
• DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106395
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0190-7409

Abstract

Highlights: Propensity-score matching created equivalent statistical proxy control group. Family Centered Treatment reduced days in out-of-home care by two months. Family Centered Treatment had more consistent treatment timing. Abstract: Family Centered Treatment (FCT) is a home-based, family trauma and family preservation treatment used in the juvenile justice, mental health, and child welfare systems to address trauma and family disruption. The aim of this study was to test the effectiveness of FCT on time to reunification for children in a child welfare system not also involved with the juvenile justice system. The sample of 187 children who received FCT was matched with the large data set of administrative data of children in the child welfare system at the same time. Using the analytic tool of propensity score matching on key demographic variables of age, gender, race, and number of children in the family, researchers created a statistically equivalent proxy group of 187 children who did not receive FCT during the same timeframe. Children receiving FCT who were removed from their homes had significantly fewer number of days to reunification than children not receiving FCT (341 vs. 417, p < .05) and the children receiving FCT spent significantly less time, over two months, in child welfare services reaching permanency more quickly than children who did not receive FCT. Key conclusions drawn include: (1) propensity score matching provided a rigorous and appropriate analytic tool for post-hoc creation of an equivalent "control" group leading to the second conclusion (2) that our analysis of FCT demonstrated it as a robust intervention that decreased days in out-of-home care by over two months for the children receiving FCT versus those who did not receive the intervention. Implications for future use of PSM and intervention research given the Family First Prevention Services Act of 2018 are included.