Virginia Commonwealth University VCU Scholars Compass Theses and Dissertations Graduate School 2010 Family preservation in families’ ecological systems: Factors that predict out-of-home placement and maltreatment for service recipients in Richmond City Jody Hearn Virginia Commonwealth University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd Part of the Social Work Commons © The Author Downloaded from https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/etd/2086 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at VCU Scholars Compass. It has been accepted for inclusion in Theses and Dissertations by an authorized administrator of VCU Scholars Compass. For more information, please contact [email protected]. © Jody Lynn Hearn, 2010 All Rights Reserved Family preservation in families’ ecological systems: Factors that predict out-of-home placement and maltreatment for service recipients in Richmond City A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. by Jody Lynn Hearn BS, Davidson College, 2002 MSW, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, 2005 Director: Melissa L. Abell Associate Professor, School of Social Work Virginia Commonwealth University Richmond, Virginia April, 2010 Acknowledgement I humbly offer my sincerest gratitude to all those who supported me from start to present. So many have contributed in the form of instrumental and emotional support to ensure the quality and value of this project and my experience conducting it. I’m grateful for my long-time advisor and dissertation chair, Dr. Melissa Abell and my committee member and mentor Dr. Mary Katherine O’Connor for compelling my independence and individual growth and for their unflinching belief in my aptitude. To my committee members: Drs. Holly Matto, Larry Williams, and Anne Kisor, thank you for being so warm and responsive. To my honorary committee member Dr. Pat Dattalo, you were a bright, shining spot in some dark moments, and I dedicate my entire HDFA to you. Thank you to Patty and Jamie McGrath Morris for establishing their dissertation writing fellowship and for providing me with an opportunity to understand the value of my research and to find my voice to express it. I have so appreciated and enjoyed working with the administrative staff at VCU (Dan Park, Candice Tam, Doug Critcher, and especially Fay Wade), the staff at RDSS (Brinette Jones and Robert Moody kept me grounded and connected), and the staff at VDSS (Paul McWhinney, Matt Wade, Kevin Platea, Doug Brown, and Mark Sleeth); various components of this project and my journey would have never occurred without them. Thank you to John Cagle for his detailed feedback on my very long chapters one and two and for even tackling my chapter four in its earlier stages. And to *all* of my amazing colleagues in the doctoral program: I could not imagine feeling more loved or valued – you guys are family. I have felt particularly fortunate to work alongside the incredible faculty at VCU, especially in the School of Social Work, who helped me to develop a real appreciation for collegiality, creativity, and encouragement in the workplace, and taught me to ask more questions and question more “truths.” I have also been blessed with wonderful family and friends outside of the program, who understood how important this all was to me, and thus made it their business to ask about it. To Neil and Melissa Sanders, you provided me a “home office” away from home, “fuel” to keep me going, and enough support to make any amount of writing seem bearable. Finally, thank you Mom and John, for helping me to be the person I am today and loving me unconditionally. And to Bradley – our “parallel processes” could have made this whole endeavor more difficult, but you managed somehow to top your own selflessness and incredible generosity and make my non-academic world effortless and blissful. “God only knows what I’d be without you” (Asher, 1966). ii Table of Contents List of Tables and Figures............................................................................................................viii Abstract............................................................................................................................................x Chapter One.....................................................................................................................................1 Problem Statement......................................................................................................................1 Rationale for study.................................................................................................................4 Background: Family Preservation Philosophy and Policy..........................................................6 Clarification of terms.............................................................................................................7 The policy timeline...............................................................................................................10 Ideology and politics............................................................................................................13 Nonrational policy development.....................................................................................14 Implications.....................................................................................................................17 The relationship between family preservation policy and practice......................................18 Child Protection...............................................................................................................22 Poverty.............................................................................................................................22 Conclusion............................................................................................................................24 Agency and Service Context.....................................................................................................25 The focus of this project.......................................................................................................25 Research Questions...................................................................................................................26 Utility of this project............................................................................................................28 Conclusion................................................................................................................................28 Chapter Two...................................................................................................................................30 Family Preservation Practice....................................................................................................30 Family services categories...................................................................................................30 Family preservation services and models.............................................................................32 Preservation-focused routine services..................................................................................36 iii Programs with explicit models.............................................................................................39 Crisis intervention...........................................................................................................40 Home-based services.......................................................................................................42 Family treatment and psychoeducational services..........................................................42 Multisystemic interventions............................................................................................43 Theories underlying family preservation services....................................................................43 Evidence-based best practices...................................................................................................46 Preservation-focused routine services..................................................................................46 Crisis intervention................................................................................................................47 Home-based services............................................................................................................47 Family treatment and psychoeducational services...............................................................48 Family Preservation Services Effectiveness and Critique........................................................49 Placement and custody change outcomes............................................................................54 Environmental/resource factors.......................................................................................54 Inter-agency factors.........................................................................................................55 Agency factors.................................................................................................................55 Family characteristics......................................................................................................57 Individual/caretaker characteristics.................................................................................58 Individual/child characteristics........................................................................................59