Housing services for child welfare families: Impact on stability and well-being.

儿童福利家庭的住房服务：对稳定和福祉的影响。

• 批准号: 8602654
• 负责人: Patrick J Fowler
• 金额: $ 31.02万
• 依托单位: WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2011
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2011-04-01 至 2016-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8602654
• 关键词: Housing; services; child; welfare; families

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This study aims to evaluate the effectiveness of a housing intervention for inadequately housed families under investigation by the child welfare system, as well as to understand the mechanisms and conditions through which the program most benefits child development. The intervention - the Family Unification Program (FUP) - is a Housing and Urban Development (HUD) initiative that provides Housing Choice Vouchers (Section 8) to families whose inadequate housing risks out-of-home placement. The study proposes to take advantage of a natural experiment that randomly provides FUP services to families (n = 100) who will be compared to a child welfare services-as-usual control group (n = 100). Oversampling will occur in both conditions to account for voucher uptake failure and attrition. The study will obtain two baseline assessments before housing services and then re-assess at 6-, 12-, and 24-months post-baseline for a total of five time points. Caregivers and their children will be administered a panel survey. The study will test a number of hypotheses: 1) it is hypothesized that families receiving housing services will report greater family stability - as indicated by residential stability, housing quality, daily routines, noise and confusion, caregiver mental health, caregiver separations, and school changes - compared to child welfare services-as-usual; 2) it is predicated that the housing intervention will have a significant positive impact on child physical and mental health, academic achievement, and developmentally adaptive behavior, relative to services-as-usual; 3) we hypothesize that positive effects on child development associated with housing services will function through reductions in family stability; 4) we hypothesize that families from less cohesive and more violent neighborhoods will gain less from the intervention; 5) we hypothesize that the housing intervention will have its greatest impact on families who are most unstable at baseline; 6) it is theorized that the housing intervention will have greater positive effects for younger children. The rigorous design enables strong scientific investigation of how FUP functions and whether intervention operates similarly across multiple levels of context. This project intends to improve understanding of the mechanisms of the FUP intervention to provide a stronger basis to build evidence-based service models and public policy. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This study takes advantage of a natural experiment to test the effectiveness of an intervention for inadequately housed families under investigation for child maltreatment. The proposed study simultaneously aims to inform social policy and service provision in the child welfare system, while investigating the processes involved in the relationship between family instability and adverse child development among at-risk families.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究旨在评估儿童福利系统调查的住房不足家庭住房干预措施的有效性，并了解该计划最有利于儿童发展的机制和条件。家庭团聚计划 (FUP) 是一项干预措施，是一项住房和城市发展 (HUD) 举措，旨在向因住房不足而面临异地安置风险的家庭提供住房选择券（第 8 条）。该研究建议利用一项自然实验，随机向家庭（n = 100）提供 FUP 服务，并将这些家庭与照常儿童福利服务的对照组（n = 100）进行比较。在这两种情况下都会发生过采样，以解决凭证吸收失败和损耗的问题。该研究将在住房服务之前获得两次基线评估，然后在基线后 6、12 和 24 个月重新评估，总共五个时间点。护理人员及其孩子将接受小组调查。该研究将检验一些假设：1）假设接受住房服务的家庭会报告更大的家庭稳定性——如居住稳定性、住房质量、日常生活、噪音和混乱、看护者心理健康、看护者分居和学校所表明的那样变化——与照常的儿童福利服务相比； 2) 据预测，相对于照常服务，住房干预将对儿童身心健康、学业成绩和发育适应行为产生显着的积极影响； 3）我们假设与住房服务相关的对儿童发展的积极影响将通过降低家庭稳定性来发挥作用； 4）我们假设来自凝聚力较差和暴力程度较高的社区的家庭从干预中获得的收益会较少； 5）我们假设住房干预将对基线最不稳定的家庭产生最大影响； 6）理论上住房干预对于年龄较小的孩子会产生更大的积极影响。严格的设计能够对 FUP 的运作方式以及干预措施是否在多个层面的背景下进行类似的运作进行强有力的科学研究。该项目旨在加深对 FUP 干预机制的理解，为建立循证服务模式和公共政策提供更坚实的基础。 公共卫生相关性：本研究利用自然实验来测试针对因虐待儿童而接受调查的住房条件不足的家庭的干预措施的有效性。拟议的研究同时旨在为儿童福利系统中的社会政策和服务提供提供信息，同时调查高危家庭中家庭不稳定与儿童不利发展之间关系的过程。