The risk factors and outcomes of unhoused families with child welfare investigations

Rhodes, Emily Cait

Permalink

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127476 Copy

Description

Title

The risk factors and outcomes of unhoused families with child welfare investigations

Author(s)

Rhodes, Emily Cait

Issue Date

2024-12-04

Director of Research (if dissertation) or Advisor (if thesis)

Wu, Chi-Fang

Doctoral Committee Chair(s)

Wu, Chi-Fang

Committee Member(s)

• Greenlee, Andrew
• Schneider, William
• Kim, Hyunil

Department of Study

School of Social Work

Discipline

Social Work

Degree Granting Institution

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Degree Name

Ph.D.

Degree Level

Dissertation

Keyword(s)

child welfare, housing

Abstract

Families experiencing homelessness are more likely to have co-morbidities (e.g. mental health and substance use) and are at higher risk of child welfare involvement than non-homeless families. Homelessness exacerbates family stress, impairs parenting, and increases the risk of child maltreatment. As a result, homeless families may be more likely to experience child welfare investigations and receive ongoing child welfare services (e.g., foster care placements). When children are placed in foster care, they may experience delays to case closure and struggle to reunify with their families if their housing and related issues are not addressed. This study uses child welfare administrative data on children investigated for maltreatment in San Francisco County between state fiscal years 2015-2024 to measure the prevalence of homelessness, the risk factors of homeless children, the probability of case opening and out-of-home placement following investigation, the outcomes of children placed in care (e.g. reunification), and re-entries to out-of-home care from reunification. Research questions about the prevalence of homelessness and risk factors of homeless children are measured using the Structured Decision Making (SDM) assessment tool used to screen for risk factors during child welfare investigations. Overall, 9 percent of children screened during this time period were identified as homeless. However, homelessness rates varied substantially by year, suggesting a need to clarify whether this trend reflects actual fluctuations or stems from an unclear definition of homelessness on screening tools. Homeless children have significantly more risk factors—more than twice as many children identified as homeless had caregiver mental health and substance abuse issues compared to non-homeless children. Homeless children also had more than three times the odds of having a total risk score reaching the level that suggests on-going child welfare intervention is needed. The study also examines the relative risk for a case opening and out-of-home placement following investigation for homeless and non-homeless children using administrative data on case and placement history. Based on logistic regression results, homeless families have more than four times the odds of a case opening for ongoing child welfare services following investigation after controlling for child characteristics. A Cox proportional hazard model is also used to measure the time between investigation and case opening, suggesting that homeless children experience case opening seventy percent more quickly than non-homeless children. Based on descriptive results, twice as many homeless (compared to non-homeless) children have “permanent placement” cases where their permanency goal is adoption or guardianship rather than reunification, and fewer homeless children have in-home family maintenance cases. When a case opens, it takes substantially longer for homeless children to close their case based on survival analysis. These results suggest that homeless children are more likely to receive a longer and more intensive ongoing child welfare invention following investigation. Homeless children also have nearly four times the odds of being placed in out-of-home care following investigation and are placed much more quickly than non-homeless children. When homeless children are placed in out-of-home care, they are less than half as likely to reunify with their families compared to non-homeless families and the first quartile of children entering care take twice as long to be discharged from care. When children do reunify, there is not a significant difference in their risk of re-entering care within one year of reunification. The results of this study suggest that homeless children with child welfare investigations have more risk factors, are more likely to have a case open following investigation, have a higher risk of out-of-home placement, and experience worse child welfare outcomes (i.e., lower reunification rates and longer durations in care) than non-homeless children. These findings provide new evidence on the needs and challenges of homeless families with child welfare investigations. They underscore the importance of screening for homelessness and providing housing interventions to stabilize homeless families and help them address the various risk factors they face to improve child welfare outcomes.

Graduation Semester

2024-12

Type of Resource

Thesis

Handle URL

https://hdl.handle.net/2142/127476

Copyright and License Information

Copyright 2024 Emily Rhodes

Owning Collections