Preyde, M., Adams, G., Cameron, G. & Frensch, K. (2009). Outcomes of children participating in mental health residential and intensive family services: Preliminary findings. Residential Treatment for Children & Youth, 26(1), 1-20.
Two groups of youth aged 12 to 16 were recruited to examine the differences in child outcome measures related to type of mental health service provision. Authors used a sample of seventeen youth in residential treatment and eighteen youth receiving intensive at-home services. The authors used quantitative and qualitative methods to gather information related to symptom severity, psychosocial and daily functioning, and anxiety management for youth entering into and exiting programs.
The authors found that there were significant differences between the two sample groups. Most residential treatment participants were under the Children’s Aid Society’s care, where it was much more likely that their legal guardian was not a parent as compared to participants receiving at-home services. Residential treatment participants also scored worse on most outcome measures then the at-home service group, suggesting that residential treatment is most often offered to youth whose mental health problems are more severe compared to those receiving home-base services. The authors also found youth exiting both home-based and residential programs showed improvements in standardized measurement scores.
Hélie, S. & Bouchard, C. (2009). Recurrent reporting of child maltreatment: State of knowledge and avenues for research. Child and Youth Services Review, 32(1), 416-422.
Hélie and Bouchard analyze research on child maltreatment recurrence reporting by reviewing American studies of recurrence rates by three research teams: Fluke, Yuan and Edwards (1999), English and Marshall (1999), and Depanfilis and Zuravin (1999).
The authors draw out themes from related literature on factors that lead to recurrence in child maltreatment reporting. These include the passage of time, the age of the child, post-investigation service provision and the presence of child neglect at the time of the initial referral. They conclude that there is both consensus and divergence within literature related to those factors that predict child maltreatment recurrence; post-investigation service provision and the presence of child neglect were those factors most disagreed upon. The authors argue that there are methodological limitations within much of the child welfare literature on recurrence rates whereby a significant proportion of studies look at substantiated maltreatment cases only. They discuss topic areas that merit further exploration including differences between cases involving single recurrence of maltreatment versus multiple maltreatment recurrence, and substantiated versus unsubstantiated cases.
D’Angiulli, A. & Sullivan, R. (2010). Early specialized foster care, developmental outcomes and home salivary cortisol patterns in prenatally substance-exposed infants. Children and Youth Services Review, 32(3), 460-465.
D’Angiulli and Sullivan examine developmental outcomes in substance exposed infants placed in foster care. The sample was comprised of twenty-two infants under twenty-four months of age, divided into a preterm and a full-term group enrolled in the Vancouver Costal Safe Babies program. The Vancouver Costal Safe Babies program provides services and special programming for foster parents supporting children exposed to substances such as drugs and alcohol.
The authors used two types of measurements to examine child outcomes. First, a salivary cortisol (i.e., stress hormone) test to compare normal infant cortisol levels to those of the participants. Second, the Battelle Developmental Inventory (BDI) assessment to examine developmental outcomes such as cognition, adaptability, personal-social development, and communication as compared to normal infant development. The authors found that there was no evidence of clinically significant differences between children within the study as compared to the typical range of developmental outcomes for children within the same age group. For this reason the authors argue that out-of-home arrangements, when appropriate, can contribute to a child’s development in positive ways resulting in average development for children prenatally exposed to substances.