How child welfare inter-agency cooperation may reduce youth HIV risk behaviors

说明(申请人提供)：儿童福利机构依赖其他机构提供边缘青少年和家长所需的大部分服务。因此，那些具有更大深度和广度的组织间关系的机构可能会更有效地将青少年和父母与药物滥用、心理健康、教育和其他卫生和社会服务联系起来。反过来，更全面的服务可能会支持年轻人避免或减少危险行为。目前，儿童福利政策的重点是改善组织间关系，以便更好地为处于危险中的青年提供服务。然而，儿童福利机构对这种关系的管理几乎没有经验基础。这项拟议的研究将有助于解决这一差距，探索“在什么情况下，儿童福利机构与其他组织的关系可以帮助他们所服务的青少年减少危险行为？”调查人员将把重点放在药物使用和性行为上，因为它们对青少年的幸福感有影响，包括社会和学习功能受损、怀孕和性传播疾病，特别是艾滋病毒-艾滋病。调查人员将利用一项针对与儿童福利系统有过接触的儿童的全国性研究数据，针对四个具体目标：(1)确定儿童福利机构与药物滥用治疗机构、精神健康服务提供者和学校之间的关系如何影响青少年和家长所接受服务的综合性；(2)确定当地服务的可获得性如何影响组织间关系与服务综合性之间的关联；(3)确定儿童福利个案工作者的属性(例如，教育、经验)及其感知的工作氛围(例如，工作量、主管支持)如何影响组织间关系对服务综合性的影响；以及(4)确定随着时间的推移，服务综合性如何影响青少年的危险行为。全国儿童和青少年幸福感调查(NSCAW)是这项拟议研究的数据来源。NSCAW的数据特别适合于这些分析，因为它们包括关于机构的组织间关系和个案工作者的属性和感知的工作环境的信息，以及个人青年及其父母在3个时间点上接受的服务和青年行为结果的信息。像所有的组织战略一样，组织间关系需要时间和金钱。通过调查特定类型的机构间联系使高危青少年受益的条件，这项研究将增进对儿童福利服务的一个重要方面的了解。这些发现将为管理者提供相关的健康和社会服务。为儿童福利机构管理者和政策制定者在分配稀缺资源方面提供可行的指导。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Child welfare agencies rely on other organizations to provide the majority of services at-risk youth and parents need. Therefore, those agencies with greater depth and breadth of interorganizational relationships may connect youth and parents more effectively to substance abuse, mental health, educational, and other health and social services. In turn, more comprehensive services may support youth in avoiding or reducing risky behaviors. There is currently substantial emphasis in child welfare policy on improving interorganizational relationships to serve at-risk youth better. However, there is virtually no empirical basis for child welfare agencies' management of such ties. The proposed study will help address this gap, exploring "Under what conditions do child welfare agency relationships with other organizations help the youth they serve reduce risky behaviors?" The investigators will focus on substance use and sexual behavior as outcomes because of their impact on youth well-being, including impaired social and academic functioning, pregnancy, and sexually transmitted diseases, notably HIV-AIDS. Using data from a national study of children who have had contact with the child welfare system, the investigators will address four specific aims: (1) Identify how relationships between child welfare agencies and substance abuse treatment facilities, mental health service providers, and schools affect the comprehensiveness of services youth and parents receive; (2) Identify how local service availability affects associations between interorganizational relationships and service comprehensiveness; (3) Identify how child welfare caseworkers' attributes (e.g., education, experience) and their perceived work climates (e.g., work load, supervisor support) affect the impact of interorganizational relationships on service comprehensiveness; and (4) Identify how service comprehensiveness affects risky behaviors in youth over time. The National Survey of Child and Adolescent Weil-Being (NSCAW) is the source of data for the proposed study. NSCAW data are uniquely suited to these analyses because they include information about agencies' interorganizational relationships and caseworkers' attributes and perceived work climates as well as the services received by individual youth and their parents and youth behavioral outcomes over 3 points in time. Like all organizational strategies, interorganizational relationships take time and money. By investigating the conditions under which specific types of inter-agency ties benefit at-risk youth, this study will improve understanding of one important aspect of child welfare services. These findings will inform managers of related health and social services.yield actionable guidance to child welfare agency managers and policy makers in allocating scarce resources.