Ecological disruptions and well-being among children in foster care.

Bronfenbrenner's framework highlights the importance of considering ecological systems to understand child well-being. Children entering foster care often experience disruption across systems. Yet, prior research has focused on specific disruptions linked to outcomes.

Profiles of Maltreatment in the Child Welfare System: Predicting Mental Health Outcomes and Examining Age as a Moderator.

This longitudinal study explored the unique profiles of maltreatment among youth in the child welfare system and examined their relation to mental health outcomes over time. We additionally examined the moderating role of age. Participants included 316 youth in the foster care system (age range: 6-13 years).

Impact of Emergency Shelter Utilization and Kinship Involvement on Children's Behavioral Outcomes.

Youth in child welfare often experience emergency shelter care, a type of congregate setting, while a permanent placement is arranged. The present longitudinal study explored the impact of initial emergency shelter placement on long-term externalizing behavior (i.e.

The Protective Effect of Kinship Involvement on the Adjustment of Youth in Foster Care.

Child maltreatment and family dysfunction (e.g., conflict) can have a long-term deleterious impact on youth well-being.

Father involvement in child welfare: Associations with changes in externalizing behavior.

Nonresident fathers can have a significant impact on children's behavioral outcomes. Unfortunately, the impact of nonresident father involvement on the behavioral outcomes of children with child welfare involvement has received scant attention in the literature, a limitation the current study sought to address. A sample of 333 children in state custody in Illinois between the ages of six and 13 participated and were assessed using the externalizing behavior scale of the Child and Adolescent Needs and Strengths (CANS) at regular intervals throughout their time in care.

Emergency shelter care utilization in child welfare: Who goes to shelter care? How long do they stay?

Emergency shelter care for children entering foster care is widely used as a temporary first placement, despite its contraindications. However, little research has examined predictors of utilization (e.g.

Confirmatory factor analysis of the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) in children and adolescents with ADHD.

The Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Functioning (BRIEF) is a parent report measure designed to assess executive skills in everyday life. The present study employed a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to evaluate three alternative models of the factor structure of the BRIEF. Given the executive functioning difficulties that commonly co-occur with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), the participants included 181 children and adolescents with a diagnosis of ADHD.

Does the Hospital Predict Readmission? A Multi-level Survival Analysis Approach.

Time to psychiatric rehospitalization was predicted for a sample of 1473 Medicaid-insured youth in Illinois in 2005 and 2006. A multi-level model statistical strategy was employed to account for the fact that youth days to rehospitalization were nested within hospital and to test the hypothesis that hospitals would vary significantly in return rates, controlling for individual-level (e.g.

Change Trajectories: Children's Patterns of Improvement in Acute-Stay Inpatient Care.

This study estimated classes of children's acute-stay psychiatric acuity trajectories in terms of shape (i.e., linear, quadratic, cubic) and rate of change (slope).

Measuring children’s response to inpatient treatment: use of practice-based evidence.

Objective: The study tested the feasibility of using practice-based evidence to improve children’s treatment response to inpatient care in psychiatric hospitals.

Methods: A total of 524 children (aged four to 12 years) who were patients at three psychiatric hospitals with child units were studied between October 1, 2009, and October 1, 2010. The Acuity of Psychiatric Illness, Child and Adolescent Version (CAPI), a reliable and valid measure of risk behaviors, symptoms, and functioning, was completed each weekday by trained frontline staff on the milieu.

Person--job match among frontline staff working in residential treatment centers: the impact of personality and child psychopathology on burnout experiences.

Prior research has shown that the personality variables extraversion and neuroticism predict burnout among frontline staff working in residential treatment centers. This study tested the hypothesis that the effect of personality on burnout would be moderated by the psychiatric characteristics of the youth served on the milieu. Two hundred and three frontline staff working in 21 residential treatment centers in Illinois serving troubled youth completed surveys regarding opinions about their jobs, the Big Five Inventory (BFI), a youth presenting problems scale for the entire milieu, and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI).

Trauma resilience among youth in substitute care demonstrating sexual behavior problems.

Objective: The purpose of this longitudinal study was to examine the relationship between several proposed protective factors and trauma symptoms among highly vulnerable youth in the child welfare system.

Methods: Participants were 142 youth identified with a sexual behavior problem and their caregivers. Two waves of data were collected for each participant an average of 18 months apart.

Evaluating psychiatric hospital admission decisions for children in foster care: an optimal classification tree analysis.

This study explored clinical and nonclinical predictors of inpatient hospital admission decisions across a sample of children in foster care over 4 years (N = 13,245). Forty-eight percent of participants were female and the mean age was 13.4 (SD = 3.

Empirically and clinically useful decision making in psychotherapy: differential predictions with treatment response models.

In the delivery of clinical services, outcomes monitoring (i.e., repeated assessments of a patient's response to treatment) can be used to support clinical decision making (i.

The hospital as predictor of children's and adolescents' length of stay.

Objective: To predict psychiatric hospital length of stay (LOS) for a sample of Illinois Department of Children and Family Services wards across 4 fiscal years.

Method: A prospective design was implemented using the Children's Severity of Psychiatric Illness scale, a reliable and valid measure of psychiatric severity, risk factors, youth strengths, and contextual/environmental factors. Data were collected for 1,930 hospital episodes across 44 hospitals from fiscal year 1998 through fiscal year 2001.

Outcomes management, expected treatment response, and severity-adjusted provider profiling in outpatient psychotherapy.

To make use of psychotherapy research in practice, therapists need real-time access to valid clinically relevant information about patients. The dose-effect and phase models of psychotherapy provide a theoretical background for empirically based psychotherapy management by describing the systematic nature of progress in therapy and guiding the selection of outcome criteria. Given this theoretical background, it is possible to derive appropriate models for monitoring cases in ongoing therapies (patient profiling) and identifying therapists' relative strengths and weaknesses (severity-adjusted provider profiling).

Use of measurement audit in outcomes management.

With the growing emphasis on accountability in mental health services, outcomes management strategies are gaining popularity. However, for these techniques to be credible, it is necessary to ensure the reliability of clinical data. In other words, outcomes measures must accurately reflect the actual status of service recipients.