Objectives: This study seeks to examine the relationship between foster care and outcomes using multiple comparison methods to account for factors that put foster youth at risk independent of care. Methods: Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, matching, propensity scoring, and comparisons to the general population are used to examine whether results differ depending on the matching strategy. Results: Propensity scoring produces a better model and more closely matched groups than traditional matching. No group differences emerge in outcomes using propensity scoring; however, differences emerge in other schemes. Conclusions: When examining outcomes for foster youth, it is important to consider multiple matching strategies, as this may affect results. Propensity scoring may be one approach to inform child welfare practice.
The AFCARS Report. (2005). Retrieved September 28, 2007, from www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb
2.
Barth, R.P. ( 1990). On their own: The experiences of youth after foster care . Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 7, 419-440.
3.
Benjamini, Y., & Hochberg, Y. ( 1995). Controlling the false discovery rate: A practical and powerful approach to multiple testing. Journal of the Royal Statistical Society, Series B, 57, 289-300.
4.
Berzin, S.C. ( 2008). Difficulties in the transition to adulthood: Using propensity scoring to understand what makes foster youth vulnerable. Social Service Review, 82, 171-196.
5.
Blome, W.W. ( 1997). What happens to foster kids: Educational experiences of a random sample of foster care youth and a matched group of non-foster care youth. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 14, 41-53.
6.
Bowen, W.G., & Finegan, T.A. ( 1969). The economics of labor force participation. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
7.
Brown, B.V., & Emig, C. ( 1999). Prevalence, patterns, and outcomes. In D. J. Besharov (Ed.), America’s disconnected youth (pp. 101-116). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.
8.
Buehler, C., Orme, J.G., Post, J., & Pattterson, D.A. (2000). The long-term correlates of family foster care. Children and Youth Services Review , 22, 595-625.
9.
Bugental, D.B., & Happaney, K. ( 2004). Predicting infant maltreatment in low-income families: The interactive effects of maternal attributions and child status at birth . Developmental Psychology, 40, 234-243.
10.
Bureau of Labor Statistics. (2003). The National Longitudinal Surveys handbook, 2003. Washington, DC: Author.
11.
Catalano, R., Lind, S., Rosenblatt, A., & Novaco, R. ( 2003). Economic antecedents of foster care. American Journal of Community Psychology, 32, 47-56.
12.
Cherlin, A., Kiernan, K.E., & Chase-Lansdale, P.L. (1995). Parental divorce in childhood and demographic outcomes in young adulthood. Demography , 32, 299-318.
13.
Collins, M.E. ( 2001). Transition to adulthood for vulnerable youths: A review of research and implications for policy. Social Service Review , 75, 271-291.
14.
Cook, R. ( 1994). Are we helping foster care youth prepare for their future ? Children and Youth Services Review, 16, 213-229.
15.
Courtney, M.E., Piliavin, I., Grogan-Kalyor, A., & Nesmith, A. ( 2001). Foster youth transitions to adulthood: A longitudinal view of youth leaving care. Child Welfare, 80(6), 685-717.
16.
Courtney, M.E., Terao, S., & Bost, N. ( 2004). Midwest evaluation of the adult functioning of former foster youth: Conditions of youth preparing to leave state care. Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago.
17.
Cox, C.E., Kotch, J.B., & Everson, M.D. ( 2003). A longitudinal study of modifying influences in the relationship between domestic violence and child maltreatment. Journal of Family Violence, 18, 5-17.
18.
Crittenden, P.M. ( 1999). Child neglect: Causes and contributors. In H. Dubowitz (Ed.), Neglected children: Research, practice, and policy (pp. 47-68). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
19.
Dehejia, R.H., & Wahba, S. ( 1998a). Causal effects in non-experimental studies: Re-evaluating the evaluation of training programs (NBER Working Paper No. 6586). New York: National Bureau of Economic Research.
20.
Dehejia, R.H., & Wahba, S. ( 1998b). Propensity score matching methods for non-experimental casual studies (NBER Working Paper No. 6829. )Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research.
21.
Duncan, G.J., Brooks-Gunn, J., & Klebanov, P.K. (1994). Economic deprivation and early childhood development. Child Development, 65, 296-318.
22.
English, D.J., Marshall, D.B., & Orme, M. ( 1999). Characteristics of repeated referrals to child protective services in Washington State. Child Maltreatment, 4, 297-307.
23.
Festinger, T. ( 1983). No one ever asked us . . . A postscript to foster care . New York: Columbia University Press.
24.
Garbarino, J., & Collins, C.C. ( 1999). Child neglect: The family with a hole in the middle. In H. Dubowitz (Ed.), Neglected children: Research, practice, and policy (pp. 1-23). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
25.
Goerge, R.M., Bilaver, L., Lee, B.J., Needell, B., Brookhart, A., & Jackman, W. ( 2002). Employment outcomes for youth aging out of foster care . Chicago: Chapin Hall Center for Children.
26.
Guo, S. ( 2005, January). Introduction to PSM: Practical issues, concerns, and strategies. Paper presented at the School of Social Work, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
27.
Guo, S., Barth, R., & Gibbons, C. ( 2004, January). Introduction to propensity score matching: A new device for program evaluation. Paper presented at the Society for Social Work Research Annual Conference, New Orleans, LA.
28.
Jackson, S., Thompson, R.A., Christiansen, E.H., Colman, R.A., Wyatt, J., Buckendahl, C.W., et al. (1999). Predicting abuse-prone parental attitudes and discipline practices in a nationally representative sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 23, 15-29.
29.
John, L., Wright, R., Duku, E.K., & Willms, J.D. ( 2008). The use of propensity scores as a matching strategy. Research on Social Work Practice, 18, 20-26.
30.
Kotch, J.B., Browne, D.C., Dufort, V., & Winsor, J. ( 1999). Predicting child maltreatment in the first 4 years of life from characteristics assessed in the neonatal period. Child Abuse and Neglect, 23, 305-319.
31.
Leuven, E., & Sianesi, B. ( 2003). PSMATCH2: Stata module to perform full Mahalanobis and propensity score matching, common support graphing, and covariate imbalance testing. Stata Version 8.1. Boston: Boston College Department of Economics.
32.
McCaffrey, D.F., Ridgeway, G., & Morral, A. ( 2004). Propensity score estimation with boosted regression for evaluating causal effects in observational studies. Psychological Methods, 9, 403-425.
33.
McLanahan, S., & Sandefur, G. ( 1994). Growing up with a single parent: What helps, what hurts . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
34.
Mech, E.V. ( 2003). Transition systems for youth. In E. V. Mech (Ed.), Uncertain futures: Foster youth in transition to adulthood (pp. 1-22). Washington, DC: CWLA Press.
35.
Michalopoulos, C., Bloom, H.S., & Hill, C.J. ( 2004). Can propensity-score methods match the findings from a random assignment evaluation of mandatory welfare-to-work programs? The Review of Economics and Statistics, 86, 156-179.
36.
Needell, B., & Barth, R.P. ( 1998). Infants entering foster care compared to other infants using birth status indicators. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22, 1179-1187.
37.
Needell, B., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Brookhart, A., Jackman, W., & Shlonsky, A. ( 2002). Youth emancipating from foster care in California: Findings using linked administrative data. Center for Social Services Research, University of California, Berkeley.
38.
Needell, B., Webster, D., Armijo, M., Lee, S., Cuccaro-Alamin, S., Shaw, T., et al. (2005). Child welfare services reports for California . Retrieved November 26, 2005, from http://cssr.berkeley.edu/CWSCMSreports/
39.
Pecora, P.J., Williams, J., Kessler, R.C., Downs, A.C., O’Brien, K., Hiripi, E., et al. (2003). Assessing the effects of foster care: Early results from the Casey National Alumni Study. Seattle: Casey Family Programs.
40.
Perneger, T.V. ( 1998). What’s wrong with Bonferroni adjustments. British Medical Journal, 316, 1236-1238.
41.
Rich, L.M. ( 1996). The long-run impact of teenage work experience: A reexamination . The Review of Black Political Economy, 25(2), 11-26.
42.
Rosenbaum, P.R., & Rubin, D.B. ( 1983). The central role of the propensity score in the observational studies for causal effects. Biometrika, 70, 41-55.
43.
Rosenfeld, A.A., Pilowsky, D.J., Fine, P., Thorpe, M., Fein, E., Simms, M., et al. (1997). Foster care: An update. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 448-457.
44.
Shadish, W.R., Cook, T.D., & Campbell, D.T. (2002). Experimental and quasi-experimental designs for generalized causal inference. Boston: Houghton-Mifflin.
45.
Shanahan, M.J. ( 2000). Pathways to adulthood in changing societies: Variability and mechanisms in life course perspective. Annual Review of Sociology, 26, 667-692.
46.
Smith, C.J., & Devore, W. ( 2004). African American children in the child welfare and kinship system: From exclusion to over inclusion. Children and Youth Services Review, 26, 427-446.
47.
Smith, H.L. ( 1997). Matching with multiple controls to estimate treatment effects in observational studies. In A. E. Raftery (Ed.), Sociological methodology (pp. 325-353). Oxford: Basil Blackwell.
48.
Sosin, M.R. ( 2002). Outcomes and sample selection: The case of a homelessness and substance abuse intervention. British Journal of Mathematical and Statistical Psychology, 55, 63-91.
49.
Sullivan, P.M., & Knutson, J.F. ( 2000). Maltreatment and disabilities: A population-based epidemiological study. Child Abuse & Neglect, 24, 1257-1273.
50.
Taylor, C.G., Norman, D.K., Murphy, J.M., Jellinek, M., Quinn, D., Poitrast, F.G., et al. (1991). Diagnosed intellectual and emotional impairment among parents who seriously mistreat their children: Prevalence, type, and outcome in a court sample. Child Abuse & Neglect, 15, 389-401.
51.
The National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. (1999). No safe haven: Children of substance-abusing parents. New York: Author.
52.
Thompson, R.A. ( 1995). Preventing child maltreatment through social support: A critical analysis. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
53.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ( 1997). National study of protective, preventive, and reunification services delivered to children and their families. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.
54.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. ( 2002). Child maltreatment 2002. Washington, DC: Children’s Bureau.
55.
Westat, I. ( 1991). A national evaluation of Title IV-E foster care independent living programs for youth. Rockville, MD: Westat, Inc.
56.
Wilson, W.J. ( 1999). The plight of the inner-city black male. In D. J. Besharov (Ed.), America’s disconnected youth (pp. 31-48). Washington, DC: Child Welfare League of America.
57.
Wu, L.L., Cherlin, A.J., & Bumpass, L. ( 1997). Family structure, early sexual behavior, and premarital births. Madison: University of Wisconsin Institute for Research on Poverty.
58.
Young, D.S., & Smith, C.J. ( 2000). When moms are incarcerated: The needs of children, mothers, and caregivers. Families in Society, 81, 130-141.
