Poverty, social disadvantage, and the black/white placement gap

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Abstract

In this paper, we examine whether county-level measures of poverty and social disadvantage are correlated with county-level variation in the black/white foster care placement gap. The black/white placement gap refers to the fact that when the rate of placement into foster care for black children is compared to the rate for white children living in the same area, the black placement rate is almost always higher than the rate for whites. Although differential exposure to poverty is often used to explain why the placement gap is so large, the problem has rarely been studied. Using Poisson event count models, we find that poverty, measured at the county ecological level, is associated with a narrower gap rather than a wider gap. The counterintuitive finding is due to the fact that the relationship between poverty and placement rates depends on race.

Highlights

► We use Poisson count models to explore the black/white placement gap. ► The analysis considers poverty and its relationship to the placement gap. ► The findings suggest that the gap is narrower in counties with higher poverty rates. ► Placement rates generally are affected more by white poverty than black poverty.

Introduction

In this paper, we examine whether county-level measures of poverty and social disadvantage are correlated with county-level variation in the black/white foster care placement gap. The black/white placement gap refers to the fact that when the rate of placement into foster care for black children is compared to the rate for white children living in the same area, the black placement rate is almost always higher than the rate for whites. Evidence suggests that the gap is quite large, with black children entering placement at an average rate that is 2.7 times greater than the average rate for whites (Wulczyn & Lery, 2007). More often than not, the gap is attributed to the differing needs of black children and families, differing treatment of black children within the child welfare system, policy differences, or some combination of the three explanations (Fluke et al., 2010, Smedley et al., 2003). That said, there have been surprisingly few systematic attempts to describe the black/white placement gap and its correlates.

This is an exploratory study. A comprehensive study of the black/white placement gap that addresses the range of plausible, interconnected theories for why black placement rates exceed those observed for whites is certainly needed, but the foundation for such a study has yet to be developed. With that in mind, our paper begins laying that foundation by working toward three specific objectives.

The literature review focuses on gaps in knowledge. Of particular interest, we observe that most, if not all, research carried out thus far has examined individual-level differences in the experience of black children as compared to white children. This is an important but rather narrow question. Because we acknowledge the placement gap exists, our focus is instead on the gap itself and how much it varies.

The second objective has to do with establishing the relationship between the placement gap, poverty, and other macro structural measures of social disadvantage. Although the differing needs of black children are used to explain why black children have higher placement rates, the fact is these assertions have rarely, if ever, been tested using contemporary social ecological models. To address this issue, we draw from the work of Sampson and Wilson (1995) to develop a series of specific questions. We are particularly interested in how black child poverty is related to black child placement, whether the relationship resembles what we find when we examine white child poverty and white child placement, and whether the connection between poverty and the placement gap offers any guidance as to how one ought to examine the black/white placement gap in deeper, more meaningful ways.

Our third objective touches on methods. To make full use of the complex ecological structure of the data, we introduce multilevel Poisson event count models to the study of placement rate disparity (Gibbons et al., 2007, Hedeker and Gibbons, 2006). Doing so provides us with a way to take the structure of the data into account, measure the placement gap, and assess directly how the gap varies with respect to county-level poverty rates and other measures of social disadvantage.

Section snippets

Prior research and knowledge gaps

Foster care is used to protect children exposed to the risk of harm from maltreatment. From 2000 to 2009, 1.8 million US children were placed in foster care. Among industrialized nations, the annual incidence of foster care placement in the US is 30% higher than Sweden, the country of those studied with the second highest incidence rate (Thoburn, 2008). The cost of placement to federal, state, and local governments is substantial. From 2000 to 2009, federal estimates put the cost of providing

Present study

Our focus in this paper is on assessing variation in the black/white placement gap and on understanding its relationship to poverty and other measures of social disadvantage. We decompose the placement gap and community poverty indicators into separate black and white components and then assess the consequences of adopting an ecological frame of reference.

This is a descriptive, exploratory study. In the simplest possible terms, we are interested in understanding whether places – in this case,

Results

The results are presented in two sections. We start with univariate and bivariate descriptions of the counties. We do this to pinpoint the black and white child placement rates and the placement gap. We show both weighted and unweighted measures. In the subsequent section, we connect these rates to the Poisson model. We also describe how the measures of social disadvantage differentiate the counties with respect to race. Then, in the second section, we examine the core research question: In

Conclusions

Although the black/white placement gap has attracted considerable interest in recent years, there have been few studies that explicitly examine the magnitude of the gap and its variability. Fewer still have accounted for the gap with reference to variation in social structure. There are, seemingly, two reasons for this lack of attention. First, the research done to date has focused on establishing whether the gap exists. Second, it has been largely assumed that where the gap does exist, the

Limitations and implications for future research

The primary goal of our study was to probe the relationship between poverty and the black/white placement gap. Although the results are in one sense provocative, the study has important limitations that should be kept in mind. First, we acknowledge that the data we have used are at the ecological level. Ideally, individual-level data would be nested within geographically defined areas so that the likelihood of placement at the individual level could be examined while simultaneously controlling

Acknowledgments

The research presented here would not have been possible without the generous support of the state child welfare directors who sponsor the Center for State Foster Care and Adoption Data. The research itself was supported by a grant from the Annie E. Casey Foundation. We are equally grateful to the Foundation for its support.

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