This article presents propensity score matching as a method to implement randomized conditions to analyze service effects using nonexperimental data. Most social work research is challenged to implement randomized clinical trials, whereas administrative and survey data are often available and can provide valuable information about services…

Examined school-age children after leaving child welfare foster or group care. Instability in placements significantly increased risk of transition to probation foster care. Among children exiting placements, those who first entered care at ages 12-14 or were first removed because of sexual abuse or neglect were at greater risk of probation…

Used data on 496 children who had been in foster care before adoption to examine effects of child characteristics on odds that child would remain in long-term foster care and length of time for adoption agreement to be legalized. Age, history of abuse/neglect, ethnicity, and planned foster parent adoption program were major determinants of…

Although the United States has seen a record influx of infants, toddlers, and preschool-aged children into the foster care system in the past decade, there has not been an accompanying shift in policy or practice to attend to the developmental issues these younger children bring to child welfare. This textbook addresses the spectrum of child…