Background

Black children are significantly overrepresented in many phases of the U.S. child welfare system.

Objective

The purpose of this study is to investigate racial disproportionality and disparities in the adoption process and factors that predict the length of time to adoption.

Participants and setting

This study utilized administrative data from the 2014 year of the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) collected in 50 States, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.

Methods

The disproportionality metric (DM) and disparity index (DI) were constructed for Black and White children, and event history analyses were conducted to calculate the probability of adoption while considering the time to adoption finalization.

Results

DM indicated that Black children (0.81) were underrepresented in adoption, and DI indicated that the likelihood of adoption for Black children (0.73) was one third lower than that for White children. The event history analyses revealed that White children were 1.27 times more likely to be adopted than Black children. White children had considerably fewer days from termination of parental rights to adoption finalization with a median time of 273.5 days compared to 328 days for Black children. Factors that extended adoption time included child intellectual, physical, and emotional/behavioral disabilities, visual and hearing impairments, parental alcohol abuse and disability, and child maltreatment histories, while parental drug abuse and longer stays in out-of-home care shortened the adoption process. We also found a significant interaction effect of race and neglect on adoption. Neglected Black children had a longer time to adoption than neglected White children.

Conclusions

More dedicated outreach programs and resources must be developed to ensure the effectiveness of adoption services and cultural continuity for Black children.

中文翻译：

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黑人和白人儿童收养路径中种族差异的事件史分析

背景

在美国儿童福利体系的许多阶段，黑人儿童的比例明显偏高。

客观的

本研究的目的是调查收养过程中的种族比例失调和差异，以及预测收养时间长短的因素。

参与者和设置

这项研究利用了 2014 年收养和寄养分析和报告系统 (AFCARS) 在 50 个州、哥伦比亚特区和波多黎各收集的行政数据。

方法

为黑人和白人儿童构建了比例失调指标 (DM) 和差异指数 (DI)，并进行了事件历史分析以计算收养概率，同时考虑收养最终确定的时间。

结果

DM 表示黑人儿童 (0.81) 在收养中所占比例不足，DI 表示黑人儿童 (0.73) 被收养的可能性比白人儿童低三分之一。事件历史分析显示，白人儿童被收养的可能性是黑人儿童的 1.27 倍。与黑人儿童的 328 天相比，白人儿童从终止父母权利到收养最终确定的天数要少得多，中位时间为 273.5 天。延长领养时间的因素包括儿童智力、身体和情感/行为障碍、视力和听力障碍、父母酗酒和残疾以及儿童虐待史，而父母吸毒和长期在外看护缩短了领养时间过程。我们还发现种族和忽视对收养有显着的交互作用。被忽视的黑人儿童比被忽视的白人儿童有更长的时间被收养。

结论

必须开发更多专门的外展计划和资源，以确保收养服务的有效性和黑人儿童的文化连续性。