Effectiveness Trial for Project SafeCare for Child Neglect

• Child welfare system recidivism [ Time Frame: Up to 2766 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  Follow-up for recidivism reports to child welfare, captured from administrative data maintained by the state child welfare system
  
  

• Child Abuse Potential Inventory [ Time Frame: Approximately 180 days and 365 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  This is a questionnaire survey measuring parenting distress, parenting attitudes, and risk for committing child abuse
  
  
• Family Resources Scale [ Time Frame: Approximately 180 and 365 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  This is a questionnaire survey measuring sufficiency of basic concrete resources in a family, such as adequate food, shelter, utilities, clothing, access to health care, etc.
  
  
• Beck Depression Inventory [ Time Frame: Approximately 180 and 365 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  This is a questionnaire measuring symptoms of depression
  
  
• Social Provisions Scale [ Time Frame: Approximately 180 and 356 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  This is a questionnaire measuring the degree of social support and quality of social relationships
  
  
• Diagnostic Interview Schedule--Drug and Alcohol Disorders Module [ Time Frame: Approximately 180 and 365 days ] [ Designated as safety issue: No ]
  This is a structured diagnostic psychiatric interview, adapted to questionnaire format, measuring symptoms of alcohol disorders and drug disorders, with associated DSM based diagnostic algorithms.
  
  

The study is a cluster-randomized field trial of the SafeCare(SC) home-based family preservation model for families in the child welfare system. The trial is conducted in collaboration with the state child welfare agency and their contracted in-home service system. The service system is regionalized and provides in home services to families referred by child welfare. Regions of the state are assigned by the study to either the SC model or to services as usual. Provider teams, nested within regions, are assigned to either a monitored or unmonitored model implementation quality control condition. The aims of the project are to test client level child welfare reentry outcomes between SC and standard conditions, across the two implementation and quality control conditions.