Reporting Problem Substance Use in the Child Welfare System: How Caregiver Characteristics Influence the Congruence of Caseworker’s and Mother’s Reports
Restricted (Penn State Only)
Author:
Cross, Marci
Graduate Program:
Human Development and Family Studies (MS)
Degree:
Master of Science
Document Type:
Master Thesis
Date of Defense:
March 20, 2023
Committee Members:
Christian Michael Connell, Thesis Advisor/Co-Advisor Abeena Jones, Committee Member Charles Geier, Professor in Charge/Director of Graduate Studies
Keywords:
child welfare maternal substance use report of substance use substance use disclosure
Abstract:
Child welfare caseworker assessments of problem substance use (PSU) can connect mothers to needs-based services and influence punitive consequences (e.g., substantiation of child maltreatment allegations, child removal, and termination of parental rights). This study evaluates caseworker and caregiver agreement and disagreement on PSU-status (i.e., when PSU is indicated by a caregiver or a caseworker, but not the other party) and how caregiver characteristics influence congruence or incongruence. Data were obtained from the National Study of Child and Adolescent Wellbeing-II. The sample included N=794 mothers who were reported to child welfare and had PSU, indicated via self-report (i.e., Drug Abuse Screening Test-10, Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test) or caseworker report. We used multinomial regression to assess how caregiver characteristics (e.g., race, caregiver and child age, poverty) were associated with congruence of PSU indication by parents and caseworkers. Within-group differences according to race/ethnicity were also assessed. Our findings suggest that the congruence of indicated reports of PSU are influenced by caregiver race and child age, which may partially explain racial and child age-related disparities in child welfare outcomes. Black mothers were more likely to experience incongruent reports of PSU, suggesting that caseworker assessments may be inadequate or mis-represent Black mother’s PSU-related needs.
