State support policies and children's living arrangements.

BACKGROUND: Many children in the United States live apart from their parents, in either formal or informal foster care, due to concerns about child abuse and neglect. Prior research has established a connection between poverty and child maltreatment, but many aspects of state support to families remain unexamined in relation to child living arrangements. OBJECTIVE: We test welfare access, welfare generosity, work supports, and family supports indicators as predictors of foster care removal rates and nonparental care rates. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We use a population of 51 states, including the District of Columbia, for years 2008 to 2018, totaling 561 state-years. METHODS: We utilize negative binomial regression models with state and year fixed effects. RESULTS: We find that one-dollar higher minimum wages are negatively associated with both foster care removal rates (IRR = 0.947, p < 0.001) and nonparental care rates (IRR = 0.975, p < 0.01), but that other state policies are not consistently beneficial. CONCLUSIONS: Our results have implications for policies to assist families and reduce child maltreatment.

Time, money, and entry into parenthood: The role of (grand)parental support.

Objective: The study's objective is to understand how parental propensities to provide support, as predicted by parental characteristics, shape adult daughters' and sons' entry into parenthood in the United States. Background: Much research explores the influence of parental support on adult children's fertility, but the evidence is mixed and primarily focuses on European contexts. Theoretical approaches suggest that to best understand how parental support shapes adult children's outcomes, it is important to account for different forms of parental support, that is, time and money, and variation in parental characteristics. Method: This study combined different data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics: the 2013 Roster and Family Transfers module, main interview data file, and the Childbirth and Adoption History File. We implemented a two-step analysis strategy. In the first, we built two different measures of propensities to receive parental support (PPS) in the form of time and money. In the second, we used discrete-time logistic regression models to analyze the effects of these propensities to receive parental support on adult daughters' and sons' fertility. Results: We find a positive and consistent effect of all types of PPS measures on adult daughters', but not adult sons', likelihood of entry into parenthood. The fertility decisions of adult daughters are highly responsive to the prospect of receiving parental support in the form of time or money. Conclusions: Our results reflect the importance of informal support for women's entry into parenthood and highlight gender differences in the perceived and actual costs of becoming parents.

Rates and predictors of child maltreatment re-perpetration against new victims and prior victims.

BACKGROUND: Limited prior research has examined the rates or predictors of re-perpetration of child maltreatment. Yet, perpetrators may have multiple victims, and perpetrators, rather than their victims, are often the primary focus of child welfare services. OBJECTIVE: We examine rates of child maltreatment re-perpetration of repeat and new victims, and test perpetrator demographics and maltreatment index incident case characteristics as predictors of re-perpetration. PARTICIPANTS AND SETTING: We use a sample of 285,245 first-time perpetrators of a substantiated maltreatment incident in 2010 from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. METHODS: We use linear probability models with full information maximum likelihood to test new victim and same victim perpetration by the end of FY 2018. RESULTS: Fifteen percent of perpetrators re-maltreated one or more of their original victims ("same victim re-perpetration"); 12% maltreated a new victim. Overall, re-perpetration was more common among younger, female, and White perpetrators. Perpetrators who were the biological or adoptive parent of their initial victim(s) had higher rates of same victim re-perpetration; new victim re-perpetration was more common among perpetrators who initially victimized an adoptive or stepchild. Same victim re-perpetration was less common among perpetrators of physical abuse than other types of maltreatment, and new victim re-perpetration was more common among perpetrators of sexual abuse and neglect than physical abuse. CONCLUSIONS: Child welfare agencies should track re-perpetration in addition to revictimization as part of agency evaluations and risk assessments.

State Contexts and Foster Care Adoption Rates.

Prior research has examined associations between state adoption policies and assisted reproductive technology insurance coverage and foster care adoption rates, but knowledge of the relationships between state policies and contexts and foster care adoption is still limited. In this study, we test adoption subsidy policy, alternative means of family formation, and the demographic characteristics of potential adoptive parents and children as predictors of foster care adoption rates at the state-year level using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System and other sources for 2005 to 2016. We use between-within models to obtain random effects estimates between states and fixed effects estimates within states. We find that states with higher average adoption subsidies have lower foster care adoption rates. Foster parent rates, international adoption rates, and mandated in vitro fertilization insurance coverage are positively associated with foster care adoption. States with higher median household incomes and more same-sex couples have higher foster care adoption rates, but states with more women of childbearing age have lower rates of older child adoption. These findings suggest some ways states may seek to increase adoptions from foster care.

Parenting Influences on Adolescent Sexual Risk-taking: Differences by Child Welfare Placement Status.

Positive parenting behaviors and parent-child relationships reduce sexual risk-taking among youth, but these associations may differ for adolescents in the child welfare system. Using two cohorts of a national longitudinal dataset of youth, the authors employed linear probability modeling to investigate associations of caregiver-child closeness, monitoring, and dating communication with youth's sexual initiation, sexual partners, and unprotected intercourse over the subsequent 12 months. Moderation by placement status (non-relative foster care, kinship care, or birth parent care) was then tested. Closeness was negatively associated with risk-taking. Monitoring was positively associated with new sexual partners among youth in birth parent care, but negatively associated with new partners for youth in out-of-home care. Dating communication was positively associated with sexual initiation and additional sexual partners, and with unsafe sex among non-relative foster youth. In sum, caregiver relationships and parenting behaviors may matter differently for maltreated and foster youths' sexual risk-taking.