Child Welfare Case Study Sample

Sample
The sample is part of a larger study examining the implementation of socioemotional and developmental screening of all children 0-5 entering the child welfare system across a large state in the northeastern U.S. (CITATION BLINDED). A sample of caregivers with open cases was randomly selected for individual interviews from across the state (N=350). Caregivers were asked about their relationship to the target child, and only biological mothers with the child living in the home at the time of the interview were included in the current study (n= 336). Interviews were primarily conducted in the participant’s home by former child welfare workers trained in the interview protocol. A structured survey containing both well-validated and project-developed measures were used.
Measures
Maternal demographic characteristics. Mothers reported their age at the target child’s birth, their race, their household income, their education level, and their own history of child welfare involvement as a child. Mothers were also asked if they had a prior referral to child welfare for any of their children.
Maternal drug abuse. Mothers were asked, “In the past 12 months have you used any drugs to get high,
Maternal depression was measured with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9; Kroenke, Spitzer, & Williams, 2001). The PHQ is a self-administered scale that assesses eight DSM IV diagnoses. The PHQ-9 is the depression module, which scores each of the nine items, including “Feeling down, depressed, or hopeless”, on a scale from “0” (not at all) to “3” (nearly every day). The PHQ-9 was normed with 6,000 patients in eight primary care clinics and seven obstetrics-gynecology clinics. Construct validity was assessed using the 20-item Short-Form General Health Survey, self-reported sick days and clinic visits, and symptom-related difficulty. A sample of 580 patients was assessed against an independent structured mental health professional interview to