Pathways Home: Reducing Risk in the Child Welfare System

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This application is for an exploratory, multi-disciplinary center, with the overarching goal of developing effective and feasible parenting interventions for children and their families in the Child Welfare System (CWS). An Administrative core will provide infrastructure and support for all research and training activities, including coordination of interactions and input from all members of the advisory group and collaborating consultants across the all center activities. In addition, a Cultural Competency core will provide guidance and training in the complex cultural issues relevant to the CWS. The center activities will be defined by three inter related project areas. Because it is now clear that the most powerful interventions are precisely informed by developmental and epidemiological research, activities in Project Area 1 will be focused on translating and extending existing developmental models of the development of substance use and antisocial behavior to children and their families in the CWS. Little is known about the day-to-day challenges faced by families during the transition home. Because such information is crucial for the development of targeted parenting interventions, Project Area 2 will focus on gaining substantial first hand information about this transition by observing families as children return home from foster care placements in two ongoing randomized studies; conducting focus groups with biological parents and stakeholders in the CWS; and piloting component intervention strategies. Activities in Project Area 3 will center on the development and execution of randomized efficacy trials of interventions for families of children returning home from foster care.