A Quantitative Study of 21st Century Performance of Foster Care in the United States

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Abstract/Contents

Abstract
Roughly 10% of US foster children leave foster care without any permanent family or home, which is known to sharply increase a person’s likelihood for unemployment, homelessness, and incarceration. There are three positive, permanent exit avenues from foster care: reunifying with one’s initial family, adoption by a new caretaker; or entering the guardianship of another caretaker, usually a relative of the child. We study how a set of geographic and non-geographic variables relate to the likelihood of exiting foster care through a competing risks analysis on 2543790 foster children from 2000-2014 in 49 states (excluding New York for data validity issues). Geographic variables were a set of clustered control variables, and a state fixed effect variable for each state. Since each state writes their own foster care policy, the fixed effects are used to understand the effectiveness of policies across states. Neighboring states were found to have dramatically different exit likelihoods. For non-geographic variables, race, age, placement stability, reason for removal, and prior removal history all had varying relations to likelihood of exiting, depending on the variant of exit. Clinical disabilities decreased likelihoods of all exits. The foster population, relative to the adult population within a state, decreased the likelihood of adoption. A model made at the end of the paper shows the potential benefits for children needing to be adopted if barriers to interstate adoption were reduced or abolished.

Description

Type of resource text
Date created May 2017

Creators/Contributors

Author Gehami, Albert
Primary advisor David, Paul A
Degree granting institution Stanford University, Department of Economics

Subjects

Subject Stanford Department of Economics
Subject America
Subject US
Subject Foster Children
Subject Cox
Subject Hazard Model
Subject Competing Hazard
Subject Map
Subject Adopted
Subject Reunification
Subject Guardian
Subject Foster
Subject Aged Out
Subject Fostering
Subject Exiting Care
Subject Neglect
Subject Child
Subject Abuse
Subject Physical Abuse
Subject Sexual Abuse
Subject AFCARS
Subject NDCAN
Genre Thesis

Bibliographic information

Location https://purl.stanford.edu/mf814px6147

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Use and reproduction
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Preferred citation

Gehami, Albert. (2017). A Quantitative Study of 21st Century Performance of Foster Care in the United States. Stanford Digital Repository. Available at: https://purl.stanford.edu/mf814px6147

Collection

Stanford University, Department of Economics, Honors Theses

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Contact information

econ@stanford.edu

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