The Causal Impact of Removing Children from Abusive and Neglectful Homes

Bald, Anthony; Chyn, Eric; Hastings, Justine S.; Machelett, Margarita

doi:10.1086/719856

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 104 publications

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“…This perspective contrasts that adopted in the recent work by Bald et al . (2022) (building on earlier work by Doyle 2007, 2008), who look at the causal effect of a child being taken into care on their subsequent outcomes. Their focus is on the effect of social care on the educational performance of children for whom safety concerns are ‘marginal’ in the sense that they may or may not be taken into care, depending on which social services investigator they are assigned to.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's social care and early intervention policy: Evidence from sure start

Anderberg

Olympiou

2023

Economica

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We study the effect of a key early intervention policy, designed to support families with children up to age 4, on the rate at which children up to age 9 are taken into social care. The gradual build‐up of over 3600 Sure Start Children's Centres (SSCCs), operated by Local Authorities (LAs) across England, created large spatial and cohort variation in the provision of a service that included health and parenting support, early learning and some childcare. LAs are also responsible for the safeguarding of children, and about 25 children per 10,000 are taken into care annually, in the majority of cases to protect them from abuse and neglect. SSCC provision may help to identify children at risk from maltreatment while also improving longer‐term outcomes. We therefore estimate the causal effect of SSCC provision on care entry rates, allowing separate effects for children within versus beyond the policy target age. Consistent with the hypothesized effects, our findings indicate that SSCC provision raised the care entry rate among children aged 0–4 (within target age), but reduced it for children aged 5–9 (beyond target age). We also provide corroborating evidence using data on Child Protection Plans and Serious Case Reviews.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Children's social care and early intervention policy: Evidence from sure start

Anderberg

Olympiou

2023

Economica

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“…Similarly, different staff members may administer a nominally homogeneous program quite differently, as with the caseworkers in the ethnographic study of the U.S. Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program by Watkins-Hayes (2009) or the child protection investigators whose heterogeneous child removal proclivities provide identifying variation in Bald, et al (2021).…”

Section: Sources Of Treatment Effect Heterogeneitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Treatment Effect Heterogeneity

Smith

2022

Eval Rev

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This paper considers recent methodological developments in the treatment effects literature, describes their value for applied evaluation work, and suggests next steps. It pays particular attention to documenting the presence of treatment effect heterogeneity, to the quest to attach treatment effect heterogeneity to particular subgroups and other moderators, and to the recent application of machine learning methods in this domain.

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“…This literature is mostly focused on estimating the causal effects of foster care on children's outcomes as opposed to sources of racial disproportionality. For instance, Doyle (2007Doyle ( , 2008Doyle ( , 2013, Gross and Baron (2022), Baron and Gross (2022), Bald, Chyn, et al (2022), Roberts (2019), andWarburton et al (2014) all examine the effects of foster care placements on children's outcomes. Grimon (2021) examines the effects of child welfare investigations on parents, and Lovett and Xue (2020) and Font and Mills (2020) examine the relative effectiveness of different placement types (kinship, unrelated caregivers, and congregate care).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For instance, Doyle (2007, 2008, 2013), Gross and Baron (2022), Baron and Gross (2022), Bald, Chyn, et al. (2022), Roberts (2019), and Warburton et al. (2014) all examine the effects of foster care placements on children's outcomes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…It is important to note that the findings of the literature on the causal effects of foster care are mixed. While papers such as Doyle (2007, 2008) find that foster care has negative effects on children at the margin of placement, other studies suggest either much less harmful or even positive effects of foster care (Bald, Chyn, et al., 2022; Baron & Gross, 2022; Gross & Baron, 2022; Roberts, 2019). This paper takes no stance on whether reducing or increasing removal rates is helpful or detrimental to children.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

The Push for Racial Equity in Child Welfare: Can Blind Removals Reduce Disproportionality?

Barón¹,

Goldstein²,

Ryan³

2022

J Policy Anal Manage

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We conduct the first quantitative analysis of “blind removals,” an increasingly popular reform that seeks to reduce the over‐representation of Black children in foster care by eliminating biases in the removal decisions of investigators. We first show that over‐representation in most foster care systems is driven by Black children being substantially more likely than White children to be investigated for maltreatment to begin with. Conditional on initial rates of investigation, investigators remove White and Black children similarly. Second, we find no evidence that blind removals impacted the already small racial disparities in the removal decision, but they substantially increased time to removal.

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The Causal Impact of Removing Children from Abusive and Neglectful Homes

Cited by 14 publications

References 104 publications

Children's social care and early intervention policy: Evidence from sure start

Children's social care and early intervention policy: Evidence from sure start

Treatment Effect Heterogeneity

The Push for Racial Equity in Child Welfare: Can Blind Removals Reduce Disproportionality?

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