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

描述（由申请人提供）：儿童福利机构依靠其他组织提供大部分的服务，在风险青年和父母的需要。因此，那些具有更深和更广的组织间关系的机构可以更有效地将青年和父母与药物滥用、精神健康、教育和其他健康和社会服务联系起来。反过来，更全面的服务可以支持青年避免或减少危险行为。目前，儿童福利政策十分重视改善组织间关系，以便更好地为问题青年服务。然而，儿童福利机构对这种关系的管理实际上没有经验基础。这项拟议中的研究将有助于解决这一差距，探讨“在什么条件下，儿童福利机构与其他组织的关系有助于他们所服务的青年减少危险行为？“调查人员将重点关注药物使用和性行为的结果，因为它们对青年福祉的影响，包括社会和学术功能受损，怀孕和性传播疾病，特别是艾滋病毒-艾滋病。利用一项全国性研究的数据，研究人员将解决四个具体目标：（1）确定儿童福利机构与药物滥用治疗机构、精神卫生服务提供者和学校之间的关系如何影响青少年和父母接受服务的全面性;（2）确定当地服务的可用性如何影响组织间关系和服务全面性之间的关联;（3）确定儿童福利个案工作者的属性（例如，教育，经验）和他们感知的工作环境（例如，工作负荷、主管支持）影响组织间关系对服务全面性的影响;（4）确定服务全面性如何随着时间的推移影响青少年的危险行为。全国儿童和青少年福利调查（NSCAW）是拟议研究的数据来源。NSCAW的数据是唯一适合这些分析，因为它们包括有关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，以及由个别青年和他们的父母和青年的行为结果超过3个时间点的服务信息。像所有的组织战略一样，组织间的关系需要时间和金钱。通过调查特定类型的机构间联系使问题青年受益的条件，这项研究将提高对儿童福利服务的一个重要方面的理解。这些调查结果将告知相关的卫生和社会服务的管理人员，为儿童福利机构的管理人员和政策制定者分配稀缺资源提供可操作的指导。

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.