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1. Introduction

1.1 Background of NSCAW

To better understand what happens to the children and families who come in contact with the child welfare system, the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) has undertaken the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). In 1996 in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act,3 Congress directed the Secretary of DHHS to conduct a national study of children who are at risk of abuse or neglect or are in the child welfare system (CWS). Congress mandated that the study do the following:

  • include a longitudinal component that follows cases for a period of several years
  • collect data on the types of abuse or neglect involved, agency contacts and services, and out-of-home placements
  • yield reliable state-level data for as many states as feasible.

The first national longitudinal study of its kind, NSCAW examines the characteristics, needs, experiences, and outcomes for these children and families. This study also provides information about crucial program, policy, and practice issues of concern to the federal government, state and local governments, and child welfare agencies. NSCAW makes available for the first time nationally representative longitudinal data drawn from first-hand reports from children and families or other caregivers, as well as from service providers. Moreover, NSCAW is the first national study that examines child and family well-being outcomes in detail and seeks to relate those outcomes to the subjects' experiences with the CWS.

The NSCAW cohort includes 6,231 children, ages birth to 15 (at the time of sampling), who had contact with the CWS within a 15-month period that began in October 1999. These children were selected from two groups: 5,504 were interviewed from those entering the system during the reference period (October 1999 through December 2000) and are the subject of this report. A separate sample of 727 was selected from among children who had been in out-of-home placement for about 12 months at the time of sampling, and are the subject of a report, available at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/afc/wellbeing_reports.html. These 6,231 children were selected from 92 primary sampling units (PSUs) in 97 counties located in 36 states nationwide.

Both children who remain in the system and those who leave the system will be followed for the full study period. The current overall study design provides for

  • baseline face-to-face interviews or assessments with children, their parents or other permanent caregivers, nonparent adult caregivers (e.g., foster parents and custodial kin caregivers) if applicable, teachers (for school-aged children), and child welfare investigators.

  • interim interviews at 12 months after the close of the investigation or assessment focused on the services received since the baseline interview. With the current caregiver, these interviews are primarily conducted by telephone, although families that cannot be contacted by phone are interviewed in person. The interview includes a brief child well-being measure. This round also includes interviews with the services caseworker, conducted in person.

  • face-to-face interviews or assessments with children, their parents or other permanent caregivers, nonparent adult caregivers (e.g., foster parents and custodial kin caregivers) if applicable, teachers (for school-aged children), and child welfare workers at 18 months (Wave 3) and at 36 months (Wave 4) after the close of the investigation or assessment.

1.2 Overview of the Child Protective Services (CPS) Study

The sample of investigated/assessed cases includes both cases that receive ongoing services and cases that are not receiving services, either because they were not substantiated or because it was determined that services were not required. The study design required oversampling of infants (to ensure there would be enough cases going through to permanency planning), sexual abuse cases (to ensure there would be enough cases to have sufficient statistical power to analyze this kind of abuse alone), and cases receiving ongoing services after investigation (to ensure adequate power to understand the process of services). The age of children at investigation was capped at 14 years to increase the likelihood that youth could be located—a task made more difficult when youth emancipate. This approach allows for generation of national estimates for the full population of children and families entering the system, with power to consider key subgroups of the child welfare population. In response to the mandate in the authorizing legislation, the sample was designed to also calculate state-level estimates for the eight states with the largest numbers of CPS cases.

Both children who remain in the system and those who leave the system will be followed for the full study period.

1.3 NSCAW Reports and Data Access

This report provides the first national look at the characteristics of children and families who come into contact with the child welfare system, based on the individual case-level data from NSCAW, and seeks to identify key findings from these baseline data. The report is not intended to be comprehensive in scope. The report is focused on the following key questions:

  • Who are the children who have had contact with the CWS? What are their living situations? What types of maltreatment have they experienced?

  • What are children's prior experiences with CWS? What were the family's strengths and risks at the time of the investigation or assessment?

  • How do these children's development, functioning, and behavior compare with other children's? Among children involved with CWS, how do development, functioning, and behavior vary across placement setting and types of abuse?

  • Who are the caregivers of children involved with CWS? What are their living situations and functioning status?

  • What sorts of relationships do children involved with CWS have with their caregivers? Their peers? What are their expectations for the future?

  • What types of services do these children and families need? What types of services have they received?

Because this report is one of the first utilizing NSCAW child and family data, the data collection and analytical methods and measures are thoroughly detailed. Further analyses can be generated from these data, which are available to the research community in the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) at Cornell University. Selected analyses were replicated for key states and are included in Appendix A. Three previous NSCAW reports looked at state- and county-level child welfare services characteristics (June 2001) and the baseline analysis for the sample component comprised of children in foster care (June 2004). These reports can be found on the ACF website at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/core/ongoing_research/afc/wellbeing_reports.html.

1.4 Organization of the Report

This report is organized into 12 chapters. Chapter 2 provides a general overview of the NSCAW survey design and data sources, with a particular emphasis on the CPS component. The chapter also addresses response rates and potential sample bias.

Chapters 3 through 5 examine the characteristics of the children in the CPS component of NSCAW. Of the eight main research questions above, these chapters focus on the characteristics of the children, the environment in which these children live, and their developmental and functioning status. Chapter 6 addresses characteristics of the current caregivers. Chapter 7 describes the relationships between these children and their current caregiver. Chapter 8 examines children's service needs and receipt, and Chapter 9 the service needs and experiences of in-home current caregivers. Chapter 10 summarizes findings from a developmental perspective. Finally, Chapter 11 provides a summary of the findings and offers possible lessons for policy and practice that may be drawn from baseline data and analysis.



3 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Sec. 429A, National Random Sample Study of Child Welfare (PL No. 104-193). (back)

 

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