Project abstract:

My first paper will be an extension of my master’s thesis, in which I examined the interaction between kin social support and relationship satisfaction in predicting outcomes for youth in the child welfare system. The results of my thesis suggested that the best condition for these variables was when they were congruent (i.e., high support/high satisfaction or low support/low satisfaction). This suggests that not only is it important to increase involvement for family members that children have quality relationships with, but it is also important to avoid involving relatives in child welfare system decisions when it is clear that children do not have quality relationships with them. This study suggests that, when possible, case workers working with these children should target the improvement of the relationship between the family member and the child before increasing the amount of involvement that the family member has in the child’s life.

My second paper will use data from a lab that I worked in between getting my bachelor’s degree and beginning graduate school. I was in a lab that worked closely with Jobs and Family Services (JFS), the state child welfare agency in Ohio. This lab was located at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, so there was also a focus on healthcare needs for this population. The dataset that I will be using was collected over a 5-year period and includes 2787 children in the child welfare system in Southwest Ohio. The dataset currently includes demographics, JFS system data (which includes information about custody type, placements, and child abuse), and electronic health record information (which includes medical and mental health diagnoses, information about medical encounters, and risk behaviors). This dataset also includes a number of clinic notes that provide additional information about each participant in the study. While my exact methodological approach has not been solidified, my goal is to use advanced statistical methods (e.g., the Prentice, Williams, and Peterson model) to understand the factors that lead to placement disruptions for youth in the child welfare system. My goal will be to understand how the relationships that youth in the child welfare system have play a role in these placement disruptions. My hope is that this paper will help to highlight ways to increase placement stability for youth in the child welfare system.

My third and final paper will use a publicly available dataset that was collected by the United States Census Bureau and comes from the National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH). This dataset includes 52,129 children ages 0-17. Data have been collected in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and a three-year longitudinal dataset is available. The information available in these datasets is related to health outcomes for children as reported by their parents or caregivers. The surveys also include information about the relationship between the child and the parent who is filling out the survey. While this survey does not include self-reported information from the children themselves, it measures similar constructs to my thesis and includes questions that are related to caregiver involvement and relationship quality. My plan is to use structural equation modeling to examine structural invariance (i.e., differences in relationships and developmental models) between children who are living with biological or adoptive parents and those who are not. I hope to examine not only the general impact of the caregiver-child relationship on various outcomes, but also examine the ways in which this model differs between those who are and are not living in a home with their biological or adopted parents. My hope is that I can apply the understanding of these constructs that I gained from samples in two Midwestern cities to a national sample. Like with my second paper, I am working to conduct literature searches that will help me finalize my methods for this paper. I plan to solidify my methodological approach for this paper prior to the summer. My goal for this paper is to contribute to the understanding of how and when various developmental models apply to children who do not live with their biological parents.

The goal for all three of these papers will be to submit them for publication and also to integrate them into one paper that will become my bundled dissertation. I hope to be finalizing my dissertation proposal by the end of Spring 2021.

Summer Undergraduate Work Timeline:

My primary goal as a research mentor will be to gain experience that supplements my teaching abilities in the classroom with the ability to work one-on-one with students in a mentor-mentee relationship. I will therefore be prioritizing weekly meetings with my mentee, and I will plan to keep an open line of communication with them throughout the summer. In addition to helping the mentee understand the research methods and statistical analyses I will be using for my dissertation, I may require some support in coding and cleaning my data and in conducting additional reviews of literature. Because I am not collecting data, I will be able to focus on giving my mentee tasks that will support their development as a budding researcher. For example, if they want to learn more about database management, I can give them tasks in that area. Alternatively, if they want to become experts in a certain area of literature, I can find articles for them to read and summarize. My goal would be to have my data coded and cleaned prior to the halfway point of the summer (roughly around July 4), then the second half of the summer would be spent analyzing the data and preparing the results and discussion sections of each paper.