Substance-affected families are frequently cited as the most challenging families to serve within the child welfare context, particularly in rural settings where treatment services may be few and far between. Growing evidence suggests that family treatment courts (FTCs) may be more effective than their traditional counterpart at achieving key child welfare goals; however, prior studies have been limited in their methodological rigour. This study used treatment and matched comparison data to test foster care exit patterns of families with children in foster care due to parental substance use. Treatment group data were collected on a sample of 91 children with open dependency cases in an integrated FTC in a rural Midwestern town. Propensity score nearest neighbour one-to-two matching was used to identify a comparison group of 146 children. Findings suggest that FTC participation significantly influenced foster care exits. Survival analyses revealed that FTC children were 170% more likely to reunify, and 58% more likely to achieve permanency, than comparison cases. The effect of FTC participation on likelihood of reunification and likelihood of permanency was stronger when models estimated outcomes from FTC start date, rather than child removal date. Implications for social work practice, research, and education are discussed.

中文翻译：

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农村环境中家庭治疗法庭的参与和永久性：来自严格的准实验的结果

受物质影响的家庭经常被认为是在儿童福利范围内服务最具挑战性的家庭，特别是在治疗服务可能很少而且相距甚远的农村地区。越来越多的证据表明，在实现关键的儿童福利目标方面，家庭治疗法院 (FTC) 可能比传统法院更有效；然而，先前的研究在方法论的严谨性方面受到限制。本研究使用治疗和匹配的比较数据来测试因父母吸毒而被寄养儿童的家庭的寄养退出模式。治疗组数据是在中西部农村城镇的综合 FTC 中收集了 91 名有开放依赖病例的儿童样本。倾向评分最近邻一对二匹配被用来确定一个由 146 名儿童组成的对照组。调查结果表明，FTC 的参与显着影响了寄养退出。生存分析显示，与比较案例相比，FTC 儿童团聚的可能性要高 170%，实现永久性的可能性要高 58%。当模型从 FTC 开始日期而非儿童搬迁日期估计结果时，FTC 参与对团聚可能性和永久可能性的影响更大。讨论了对社会工作实践、研究和教育的影响。当模型从 FTC 开始日期而非儿童搬迁日期估计结果时，FTC 参与对团聚可能性和永久可能性的影响更大。讨论了对社会工作实践、研究和教育的影响。当模型从 FTC 开始日期而非儿童搬迁日期估计结果时，FTC 参与对团聚可能性和永久可能性的影响更大。讨论了对社会工作实践、研究和教育的影响。