Pathways Home: Reducing Risk in the Child Welfare System
(Subcontract PI: Reid)
National Institute on Drug Abuse

This transdisciplinary prevention research center has the overarching goal of developing effective and feasible parenting interventions for children and their families in the child welfare system (CWS). The center activities are defined by the following inter-related project areas:

Theory Extension. Because the most powerful interventions are informed by developmental and epidemiological research, a series of activities are focused on translating and extending existing developmental models of substance use and antisocial behavior to children and their families in the CWS.

Stakeholder Feedback Studies. While studies have been conducted about the short and long term outcomes for families involved in the CWS, little is known about the day-to-day challenges people involved in the CWS face. We are conducting interviews and focus groups with all levels of CWS stakeholders to gain a broader perspective of system effectiveness. We are interviewing families and their relatives who have or have not yet experienced a successful reunification. We are interviewing CWS caseworkers, attorneys who represent CWS cases, judges who preside over CWS cases, and community treatment service providers who work with CWS clients (i.e., substance treatment, domestic violence treatment, and mental health treatment). This first-hand information is crucial to the development of effective and feasible parenting interventions.

Intervention Development. Activities in this area center on the development and execution of pilot projects to test specific intervention components as well as randomized efficacy trials of interventions for families of children returning home from foster care.