Do drug treatment services predict reunification outcomes of mothers and their children in child welfare?

Grella, Christine E.; Needell, Barbara; Shi, Yifei; Hser, Yih-Ing

doi:10.1016/j.jsat.2008.06.010

« Previous Next »Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment
Volume 36, Issue 3 , Pages 278-293, April 2009

Do drug treatment services predict reunification outcomes of mothers and their children in child welfare?

Christine E. Grella, Ph.D.
- UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute on Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA
- Corresponding author. UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, 1640 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 200, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA. Tel.: +1 310 267 5451; fax: +1 310 473 7885.
Barbara Needell, Ph.D.
- Center for Social Services Research, School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Yifei Shi, M.S.
- UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute on Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA
Yih-Ing Hser, Ph.D.
- UCLA Integrated Substance Abuse Programs, Semel Institute on Neuroscience and Human Behavior, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90025, USA

Received 18 December 2007; received in revised form 19 May 2008; accepted 22 June 2008. published online 05 September 2008.

Abstract

The effect of mothers' participation in substance abuse treatment on reunification with their children who are in out-of-home care is an important policy issue. This article examines the predictors of child reunification among mothers who participated in a statewide treatment outcome study. Data were integrated from multiple sources to determine the contributions of characteristics of mothers (n = 1,115), their children (n = 2,299), and treatment programs (n = 43) on reunification outcomes. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine the fixed and random effects of mother, child, and program characteristics. Mothers with more employment and psychiatric problems were less likely to be reunified with their children; completion of 90 or more days in treatment approximately doubled their likelihood of reunification. Mothers who were treated in programs providing a “high” level of family-related or education/employment services were approximately twice as likely to reunify with their children as those who were treated in programs with “low” levels of these services.

Keywords: Substance abuse treatment, Child welfare, Reunification, Treatment services