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Abstract
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BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Child maltreatment (CM) is a recurrent adverse life event known to cause enduring psychiatric impairment throughout life. For young children in protective custody for a first episode of CM, specialized court-coordinated intervention to optimize reunification has shown promise for preventing CM recidivism, with case series documenting short-term successes.
METHODS: We tracked 10-year (Nov 2011-March 2022) court re-entry outcomes in a cohort of 272 young children, birth to six years, reunited with their families following placement in protective custody and court referral to the SYNCHRONY Project, a voluntary clinical service providing Incredible YearsTM parenting education, parental psychiatric care, and serial dyadic clinical evaluation to inform medical recommendations on safety for visitation and reunification. Re-entry was operationalized as rereferral to any Missouri Court and proportions compared with contemporaneous State and national data.
RESULTS: SYNCHRONY-enrolled/reunified children experienced frequencies of guardianship (22%) and reunification (46%), in keeping with Missouri averages. In these categories, 3.4% and 7.1% respectively were re-referred to the Court over the 10-year follow-up. In care as usual nationally for this age group, the re-referral proportions are 18% (OR 7.5, P <.0001) and 35% (OR 6.1, P <.0001) respectively. In care as usual in Missouri across all ages, the re-referral proportion is 16% (odds ratio [OR] 3.09, P <.0001).
CONCLUSIONS: Judicious implementation of evidence-based parenting education, 2-generation psychiatric care, and clinical consultation were associated with marked reduction in court re-entry versus care-as-usual and warrant consideration in intervention standards for young children in foster care.
Language: en |