What Counts as Evidence in Child Welfare Research?

Abstract

In this commentary, we respond to Barth and colleagues and critique their premise that Western-based research with population-level administrative data is the best and only valid evidence on which to base child welfare policy and practice changes. We offer an alternative viewpoint on what forms of evidence should be brought to bear as we consider re-envisioning the child welfare system, highlighting the importance of lived experience and the need to consider the evidence regarding all marginalized racial and ethnic groups. We argue that evidence should represent the perspectives of those with lived experience and that collaborative child welfare research can strengthen the validity of analyses and interpretations. We hold that Barth et al. ask and answer the wrong questions. We press for deeper critical reflection, a more nuanced intersectional lens, and urgent action to address structural and institutional racism in the child welfare system.

Keywords

child welfare reform misconceptions social work research research-supported reform

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Alson

J. G.

Robinson

W. R.

Pittman

Doll

K. M.

(2021). Incorporating measures of structural racism into population studies of reproductive health in the United States: A narrative review. Health Equity, 5(1), 49–58. https://doi.org/10.1089/heq.2020.0081.

Azzi-Lessing

Olsen

L.J.

(1996). Substance abuse-affected families in the child welfare system: New challenges, new alliances. Social Work, 41(1), 15–23. https://doi.org/10.1093/sw/41.1.15.

Barlow

Varipatis-Baker

Speakman

Ginsburg

Friberg

Goklish

Walkup

(2006). Home-visiting intervention to improve child care among American Indian adolescent mothers: a randomized trial. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine, 160(11), 1101–1107. https://doi.org/10.1001/archpedi.160.11.1101.

Barth

R. P.

Berrick

J. D.

Garcia

A. R.

Drake

Jonson-Reid

Gyourko

J. R.

Greeson

J. K. P.

(2021). Research to consider while effectively re-designing child welfare services. Research on Social Work Practice. https://doi.org/10.1177/10497315211050000.

Birt

Scott

Cavers

Campbell

Walter

(2016). Member checking: A tool to enhance trustworthiness or merely a nod to validation? Qualitative Health Research, 26(13), 1802–1811. https://doi.org/10.1177/1049732316654870.

Blackdeer

A. A.

Silverwolf

D. A. P.

(2020). Evidence mapping: Interventions for American Indian and Alaskan native youth mental health. Journal of Evidence Based Social Work, 17(1), 49–62. https://doi.org/10.1080/26408066.2019.1624237.

Briggs

H.E.

Hardeman

C. P.

Banks

Briggs

A. C.

Allen

J. L.

Hopps

J. G.

McCrary

(2020). Do race, racial disproportionality, and disparities remain foci of child welfare?: Words matter. Child Welfare, 98(5), 93–117.

Center for the Study of Social Policy (2021). Our identities, ourselves: A guide to anti-racist data collection for system leaders and data administrators. https://cssp.org/resource/our-identities-ourselves-a-guide-to-anti-racist-data-collection-for-system-leaders-and-data-administrators/.

Clifford

Burke

(2009). Anti-oppressive ethics and values in social work, London, United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillian.

10.

Coohey

(2006). How child protective services investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect in sexual abuse cases. Journal of Child Sexual Abuse, 15(4), 61–81. https://doi.org/10.1300/J070v15n04_04.

11.

Crenshaw

(1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrinefeminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 1(8), 139–167.

12.

Crofoot

T. L.

Harris

M. S.

(2012). An Indian child welfare perspective on disproportionality in child welfare. Children and Youth Services Review, 34(9), 1667–1674. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2012.04.028.

13.

Day

Callis

(2020, July). Washington State Tribal child welfare prevention programs:An independent technical review. https://washington.academia.edu/AngeliqueDay/Professional-Reports

14.

de Finney

Green

Brown

(2009). Towards transformational research for and with indigenous communities: The new British Columbia indigenous child welfare research network. First Peoples Child & Family Review, 4(2), 161–164.

15.

de la Peña

C. M.

Pineda

Punsky

(2019). Working with parents and children separated at the border: Examining the impact of the zero tolerance policy and beyond. Journal of Child & Adolescent Trauma, 12(2), 153–164. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-019-00262-4.

16.

Dettlaff

A. J.

(Ed), (2021). Racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system, Basingstoke, United Kingdom: Springer Nature.

17.

Dettlaff

A. J.

Boyd

(2020). Racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system: Why do they exist, and what can be done to address them? The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 692(1), 253–274. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716220980329.

18.

Dickson

D. T.

(2009). When law and ethics collide: Social control in child protective services. Ethics & Social Welfare, 3(3), 264–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/17496530903209485.

19.

Echo-Hawk

(2011). Indigenous communities and evidence building. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 269–275. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2011.628920.

20.

Edleson

J. L.

(2004). Should childhood exposure to adult domestic violence be defined as child maltreatment under the law? In P G

Jaffe

L L

Baker

A J

Cunningham

(Eds.), Protecting children from domestic violence: Strategies for community intervention (pp. 8–29), New York, NY: Guilford Press.

21.

Edwards

Beardall

T. R.

(2021). Abolition, settler colonialism, and the persistent threat of Indian child welfare. Columbia Journal of Race and Law, 11(3), 533–574. https://doi.org/10.52214/cjrl.v11i3.8744.

22.

Fathallah

Sullivan

(2021). Away from home: Youth experiences of institutional placements in foster care, Washington, DC: Think Of Us. https://assets.website-files.com/60a6942819ce8053cefd0947/60f6b1eba474362514093f96_Away%20From%20Home%20-%20Report.pdf.

23.

Fernandes-Alcantara

A. L.

(2019). Youth transitioning from foster care: Background and federal programs, Washington, DC: Congressional Research Service, RL34499 https://crsreports.congress.gov.

24.

Fluke

J. D.

López

M. L.

Benbenishty

Knorth

E. J.

Baumann

D. J.

(Eds), (2020). Decision-making and judgment in child welfare and protection: Theory, research, and practice, Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780190059538.001.0001.

25.

Freemont

Winter (2020). Gold standard lawyering for child welfare system-involved families: Anti-racism, compassion, and humility. The Guardian, 42(4), 1–6. https://cdn.ymaws.com/www.naccchildlaw.org/resource/resmgr/guardian/2020_december/guardian_2020_v42n04_r6.pdf.

26.

Friesen

B. J.

Cross

T. L.

Jivanjee

P. R.

Gowen

L. K.

Bandurraga

Bastomski

Maher

N. J.

(2012). More than a nice thing to do: A practice-based evidence approach to outcome evaluation in native youth and family programs. In C

Downey

(Ed.), Handbook of race and development in mental health (pp. 87–106), Berlin, Germany: Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0424-8_6.

27.

Hartmann

W.E.

Wendt

D.C.

Burrage

R.L.

Pomerville

Gone

J.P.

(2019). American Indian historical trauma: Anti-colonial prescriptions for healing, resilience, and survivance. American Psychologist, 74(1), 6–19. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000326.

28.

Henry

Carnochan

Austin

M. J.

(2014). Using qualitative data-mining for practice research in child welfare. Child Welfare, 93(6), 7–26. https://doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780197518335.003.0010.

29.

Henry

Victor

B. G.

Ryan

J. P.

Perron

B. E.

(2020). Substantiated allegations of failure to protect in the child welfare system: Against whom, in what context, and with what justification? Children and Youth Services Review, 116, 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2020.105091.

30.

Hess

(2018). Challenging the empire in empir(e)ical research: The question of speaking in music education. Music Education Research, 20(5), 573–590. https://doi.org/10.1080/14613808.2018.1433152.

31.

Hill

R. B.

(2004). Institutional racism in child welfare. Race and Society, 7(1), 17–33. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.racsoc.2004.11.004.

32.

Kim

Drake

(2018). Child maltreatment risk as a function of poverty and race/ethnicity in the USA. International Journal of Epidemiology, 47(3), 780–787. https://doi.org/10.1093/ije/dyx280.

33.

Kleven

(2021). A nation and culture's fight for survival: How the existing Indian family exception renders ICWA inapplicable. Nebraska Law Review Bulletin, 100(1), 1–34. https://lawreview.unl.edu/nation-and-cultures-fight-survival-how-existing-indian-family-exception-renders-icwa-inapplicable.

34.

Lewis

P. J.

Hildebrandt

(2019). Storytelling as qualitative research, Thousand Oaks, California: Sage. http://dx.doi.org/10.4135/9781526421036754858.

35.

Lucero

(2011). From tradition to evidence: Decolonization of the evidence-based practice system. Journal of Psychoactive Drugs, 43(4), 319–324. https://doi.org/10.1080/02791072.2011.628925.

36.

Maguire-Jack

Font

S. A.

Dillard

(2020). Child protective services decision-making: The role of children’s race and county factors. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 90(1), 48–62. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000388.

37.

Martinez

K. J.

Callejas

Hernandez

(2010). Community-defined evidence: A bottom-up approach to measure what works in communities of color. Emotional and Behavioral Disorders in Youth, 10(1), 11–16.

38.

Merritt

D. H.

(2021). Lived experiences of racism among child welfare-involved parents. Race and Social Problems, 13(1), 63–72. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12552-021-09316-5.

39.

Pieper-Jordan

(2021). Hidden data: The untold story of native Hawaiian children in foster care. Hawaii Budget and Policy Center. https://www.hibudget.org/blog/hidden-data-the-untold-story-of-native-hawaiian-children-in-foster-care.

40.

Pryce

Lee

Crowe

Park

McCarthy

Owens

(2019). A case study in public child welfare: County-level practices that address racial disparity in foster care placement. Journal of Public Child Welfare, 13(1), 35–59. https://doi.org/10.1080/15548732.2018.1467354.

41.

Putnam-Hornstein

Needell

King

Johnson-Motoyama

(2013). Racial and ethnic disparities: A population-based examination of risk factors for involvement with child protective services. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(1), 33–46. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2012.08.005.

42.

Raz

(2020). Abusive policies: How the American child welfare system lost its way, Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press.

43.

Rivaux

S. L.

James

Wittenstrom

Baumann

Sheets

Henry

Jeffries

(2008). The intersection of race, poverty, and risk: Understanding the decision to provide services to clients and to remove children. Child Welfare, 87(2), 151–168.

44.

Roberts

(2002). Shattered bonds: The color of child welfare, New York, NY: Basic Books.

45.

Sanders

(2021). How can child welfare leaders and providers reimagine support for children and families? Leadership lessons: Transforming child welfare systems, Washington, DC: Casey Family Programs. https://www.casey.org/sanders-upstream-qanda/.

46.

Seita

J. R.

(2004). Strength-based approaches expand into leadership. Reclaiming Children and Youth: The Journal of Strength-Based Interventions, 13(1), 22–26.

47.

Shomberg

(2021). Slide presentation to National child welfare workforce institute advisory board.

48.

Smokowski

P. R.

Evans

C. B. R.

Cotter

K. L.

Webber

K. C.

(2014). Ethnic identity and mental health in American Indian youth: Examining pathways through self-esteem and future optimism. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 43(3), 343–355. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10964-013-9992-7.

49.

Tajima

E. A.

(2021). First, do no harm: from diversity and inclusion to equity and anti-racism in interpersonal violence research and scholarship. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 36(11–12), 4953–4987. https://doi.org/10.1177/08862605211012999.

50.

Trivedi

(2019). The harm of child removal. New York University Review of Law & Social Change, 43, 523–580.

51.

Walker

S. C.

Whitener

Trupin

E. W.

Migliarini

(2015). American Indian perspectives on evidence-based practice implementation: Results from a statewide tribal mental health gathering. Administration and Policy in Mental Health and Mental Health Services Research, 42(1), 29–39. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10488-013-0530-4.

52.

Wallerstein

N. B.

Duran

(2006). Using community-based participatory research to address health disparities. Health Promotion Practice, 7(3), 312–323. https://doi.org/10.1177/1524839906289376.

53.

Weber

Morrison

(2021). The institutional analysis: A tool for diagnosing structural contributors to racial disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. In A J

Dettlaff

(Ed.), Racial disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system. Contemporary issues in research and policy (11, pp. 375–395). Cham: Child maltreatment Springer. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-54314-3_19.

54.

Wells

S. J.

Merritt

L. M.

Briggs

H. E.

(2009). Bias, racism and evidence-based practice: The case for more focused development of the child welfare evidence base. Children and Youth Services Review, 31(11), 1160–1171. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2009.09.002.

55.

White

J. G.

White

H. B.

Larrington

J. M.

(2005). Criminal prosecution of battered native women for failure to protectSouthwest center for law and policy & office on violence against women, Washington, DC: US Department of Justice. https://www.swclap.org/wp-content/uploads/FAILURETOPROTECT.pdf.