Peter J Pecora
Dados Biográficos
| ID | 295553 |
|---|---|
| NOME | Peter J Pecora |
| PRENOMES | Peter J |
| SOBRENOME | Pecora |
| ASSINATURA | PECORA P J |
| AFILIAÇÕES | University of Washington |
| ORCID | 0000-0001-6596-3746 |
| VERIFICADO | Sim |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 53 |
| TOTAL DE CITAÇÕES | 502 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 53 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 0 |
| PRIMEIRO ANO DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 1981 |
| ANO MAIS RECENTE DE PUBLICAÇÃO | 2026 |
| ÍNDICE H | 10 |
The nurturing parenting − nurturing skills for families evaluation
Strategies for utilizing research findings for policy, program design and practice in child and family social services
An examination of recent federal and philanthropic funding for child welfare research in the United States
Reducing Foster Care Entry Rates for Children in Sacramento County
Beginning in 2006, Sacramento County implemented multiple child welfare practices and policies to reduce high rates of foster care entries (e.g., early intervention family drug courts, differential response, team decision-making, a family-centered approach to safety and risk assessment). Those strategies were identified through interviews with County child welfare leaders; and then the strategies were placed chronically in a table to inform a lon…
The Effects of Child Poverty Reductions on Child Protective Services Involvement
In this study, we use microsimulation methods to estimate the reduction in child protective services (CPS) involvement resulting from implementation of three of the policy packages from a recent National Academy of Sciences proposal to reduce child poverty, including the introduction of a child allowance and expansions to the earned income tax credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the federal minimum wage. We find that the po…
Research and knowledge gaps in child welfare in the United States
This article provides the results of a survey of individuals with varied experience in child welfare, including constituents who have experienced child welfare; caseworkers, managers, and other direct service providers; policymakers and judges; Native American experts, advocates, researchers, and program evaluators. Survey respondents were asked to identify research questions that need to be addressed to support youth and families and to prioriti…
Positive Indian Parenting
Positive Indian Parenting (PIP) is a culturally based training developed by the National Indian Child Welfare Association in the mid-1980s that has been widely used across Indian Country. However, quantitative studies on its efficacy have not been conducted. This manuscript reports on the study design and development of an ongoing pilot study evaluating PIP and related adaptations that occurred within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Adaptat…
Understanding the effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare
Prior research demonstrates that the interdisciplinary law office approach to parental representation in child welfare, used in the New York City Family Court, speeds up the time to permanency for children in foster care with no effect on child safety. Interrogating these findings further, this study utilizes a qualitative interview-based design to understand how the model works in practice to impact the outcomes of families’ cases. We interviewe…
Technical reviewing for the Family First Prevention Services Act
The Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) has compelled states to expand their priorities to implement evidence-based practices (EBPs) as a means to prevent foster care placement. While the states may opt to include EBPs already approved by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), some state leaders are opting to commission an independent technical review for the EBP they would prefer to implement as part of their FFPSA plan. Wh…
Assessing an Adapted Approach to Communities That Care for Child Maltreatment Prevention
Objective: Communities That Care (CTC) is an evidence-based community mobilization model designed to prevent problematic adolescent behaviors such as delinquency and substance use by organizing community coalitions that choose and implement evidence-based practices to address community-specific risk and protective factors. This paper presents findings from the evaluation of Keeping Families Together (KFT)—an adapted CTC approach that targets comm…
Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare
This study utilizes a quasi-experimental propensity score matching design to assess the causal impact on child welfare outcomes when parents facing an abuse or neglect case in the New York City Family Court were provided interdisciplinary law office representation as opposed to a standard panel attorney. The interdisciplinary law office approach includes social work staff and parent advocates for the parent, and salaried attorneys working in nonp…
Evaluating Family-Based Services
A systems analysis of youth in acute and subacute therapeutic residential care
The Arkansas Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) has reduced the use of therapeutic residential care (e.g., group homes, residential treatment centers) for youth placed in child welfare. Youth in acute or subacute congregate care for 30 or more days without Medicaid now are of particular interest. This is a longer-term psychiatric program, typically 3 to 6 months. The project team conducted a systems analysis to determine the specif…
An International Effort to Develop a Fidelity Measure for Signs of Safety®
Purpose: This article describes how a worker fidelity assessment measure was developed for Signs of Safety®—an approach to assessing safety and risk in child protective services that is being implemented in the United States and over 11 other countries. Methods: We applied the Delphi Survey process with 70 experts from nine countries to identify key practice elements that could be assessed by supervisors. Then, 435 frontline staff were assessed b…
A national analysis of guardianship assistance policy and implementation
Assessing the value of family safety networks in child protective services
The considerable number of families served continues to place systemic challenges on the child welfare system. Jurisdictions are turning to new strategies to increase family engagement in services and to leverage taxed or limited resources. Signs of Safety® is a strengths‐based and safety‐focused approach to child protection work that is grounded in partnership and collaboration. This exploratory pilot study with a referred participant sample use…
Advancing the measurement of collective community capacity to address adverse childhood experiences and resilience
Building the Evidence Base for Intensive Family Preservation Services
This article examines the state of intensive family preservation services (IFPS) research. Using studies of IFPS in five states, this article seeks to establish whether IFPS can be regarded as an evidence-based practice, an increasingly important standard for publicly funded services. While reporting rates of repeat child maltreatment, the analysis uses placement rates as the main outcome measure and compares effect sizes using Cohen's arcsine tr…
Educational outcomes for adults formerly in foster care
Parent, Staff, and Stakeholder Experiences of Group Care Reform
Group care has been criticized for excessive lengths of stay and inability to help children improve their emotional and behavior functioning. The Residentially-Based Services (RBS) Reform Project, with demonstration sites in four large counties in California, is intended to transform the current system of group care through (a) early engagement of families; (b) focus on therapeutic enhancement of child well-being in tandem with immediate permanen…
Effective services for improving education and employment outcomes for children and alumni of foster care service
Outcomes for youth from foster care have been found to be poor. The education and employment outcomes of youth and alumni of foster care served by transition programmes located in five major US cities were examined. Data were collected by case managers and reported to evaluators quarterly on 1058 youth from foster care for over 2 years. Job preparation, transportation, child care, education support services and life skills were the most common se…
Intergenerational pathways leading to foster care placement of foster care alumni's children
This study examined a path model that postulated intergenerational relationships between biological parent psychosocial functioning and foster care alumni mental health, economic status, and social support; and from these to the likelihood of children of foster care alumni being placed in foster care. The sample included 742 adults who spent time in foster care as children with a private foster care agency and who reported having at least one bio…
Reshaping Child Welfare’s Response to Trauma
Growing evidence has linked early trauma with severe psychiatric consequences. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a potentially debilitating mental health condition found among some youth in foster care and foster care alumni. However, the current child welfare practice response has not met the demands in both assessment and intervention. This critical review aims to use the evidence to reshape the child welfare response to trauma in childre…
Structuring the Decision to Accept a Child Protection Report
Three agencies collaborated to construct, implement, and evaluate a screening and response time assessment for child protective services intake staff in Maryland. Evaluation activities included reliability testing of the assessment, a qualitative review of screening decisions conducted before and after implementation, and a survey of workers about the assessment and its implementation. Inter-rater reliability testing among field staff showed high…
Addressing common forms of child maltreatment
This paper reviews interventions for preventing the occurrence and recurrence of major types of child maltreatment. We begin with an overview of the challenges of establishing evidence‐based interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect in many countries, and underscore the importance of this need with child maltreatment incidence rates in the USA , and how much each type and subtype contribute to child out‐of‐home placement. Next, we identify…
Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care
Assessing the educational achievements of adults who were formerly placed in family foster care
Case records and interviews concerning educational achievements of 1087 foster care alumni are presented. Youth were served by a voluntary agency in 23 communities across the USA between 1966 and 1998. Because the alumni were older than most foster care follow‐up studies, a more extensive picture of educational achievement was possible. High school graduation and college enrolment rates were comparable to or even greater than those of the general…
Maximizing educational achievement of youth in foster care and alumni
Providing Better Opportunities for Older Children in the Child Welfare System
A growing number of children over age 10 reside in and emancipate from foster care every year. Older children face many of the same challenges as younger children, but they also have unique developmental needs. This article discusses older children in the child welfare system and finds: Approximately 47% of children in foster care are over age 11, and in 2001, 20% of children leaving foster care were over age 16. Older children need permanency, s…
An experiment in family reunification
Disproportionality in education and employment outcomes of adult foster care alumni
Effective services for improving education and employment outcomes for children and alumni of foster care service
Outcomes for youth from foster care have been found to be poor. The education and employment outcomes of youth and alumni of foster care served by transition programmes located in five major US cities were examined. Data were collected by case managers and reported to evaluators quarterly on 1058 youth from foster care for over 2 years. Job preparation, transportation, child care, education support services and life skills were the most common se…
Intergenerational pathways leading to foster care placement of foster care alumni's children
This study examined a path model that postulated intergenerational relationships between biological parent psychosocial functioning and foster care alumni mental health, economic status, and social support; and from these to the likelihood of children of foster care alumni being placed in foster care. The sample included 742 adults who spent time in foster care as children with a private foster care agency and who reported having at least one bio…
An evaluation of recovery factors for foster care alumni with physical or psychiatric impairments
Reshaping Child Welfare’s Response to Trauma
Growing evidence has linked early trauma with severe psychiatric consequences. Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a potentially debilitating mental health condition found among some youth in foster care and foster care alumni. However, the current child welfare practice response has not met the demands in both assessment and intervention. This critical review aims to use the evidence to reshape the child welfare response to trauma in childre…
Racial and ethnic differences in the outcomes of former foster youth
The Effects of Child Poverty Reductions on Child Protective Services Involvement
In this study, we use microsimulation methods to estimate the reduction in child protective services (CPS) involvement resulting from implementation of three of the policy packages from a recent National Academy of Sciences proposal to reduce child poverty, including the introduction of a child allowance and expansions to the earned income tax credit, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the federal minimum wage. We find that the po…
Educational outcomes for adults formerly in foster care
The Relationship Between Homelessness and Mental Health Among Alumni of Foster Care
This study examined the relationship between history of homelessness and current mental health symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 542 alumni of foster care (ages 19, 22, and 25 years). Approximately one in five (19.8%) alumni of foster care experienced homelessness since leaving care, and alumni experienced symptoms of psychological disorders associated with PTSD at rates significantly higher than the general pop…
Building the Evidence Base for Intensive Family Preservation Services
This article examines the state of intensive family preservation services (IFPS) research. Using studies of IFPS in five states, this article seeks to establish whether IFPS can be regarded as an evidence-based practice, an increasingly important standard for publicly funded services. While reporting rates of repeat child maltreatment, the analysis uses placement rates as the main outcome measure and compares effect sizes using Cohen's arcsine tr…
Overcoming challenges to implementing and evaluating evidence-based interventions in child welfare
Three models of collaborative child protection
The paper articulates three models of collaboration between child protection services and law enforcement agencies on investigations of child maltreatment, and examines the relative impact of each model on child removals and short‐term foster care placements. An extensive review of the research literature is used to derive lessons for jurisdictions using the different models. Promising strategies from several jurisdictions are described as they r…
Exploring spirituality among youth in foster care
This study examined spiritual coping mechanisms, beliefs about spirituality and participation in spiritual activities and in other positive activities among adolescents in foster care. A multidimensional measure of spirituality was developed for face-to-face interviews with 188 youth (ages 14-17) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Findings revealed 95% of youth believe in God, over 70% believe God is 'creator' and God is…
Strategies for improving child welfare services for families of color
Mental health outcomes for adults in family foster care as children
Ethnic group comparisons in mental health outcomes of adult alumni of foster care
Effects of an interdisciplinary approach to parental representation in child welfare
This study utilizes a quasi-experimental propensity score matching design to assess the causal impact on child welfare outcomes when parents facing an abuse or neglect case in the New York City Family Court were provided interdisciplinary law office representation as opposed to a standard panel attorney. The interdisciplinary law office approach includes social work staff and parent advocates for the parent, and salaried attorneys working in nonp…
An International Effort to Develop a Fidelity Measure for Signs of Safety®
Purpose: This article describes how a worker fidelity assessment measure was developed for Signs of Safety®—an approach to assessing safety and risk in child protective services that is being implemented in the United States and over 11 other countries. Methods: We applied the Delphi Survey process with 70 experts from nine countries to identify key practice elements that could be assessed by supervisors. Then, 435 frontline staff were assessed b…
Health outcomes for adults in family foster care as children
Post-Secondary Education and Training Support Utilization by Students from Foster Care
The United States federal government estimated that 513,000 children were in foster care as of September 30, 2005. Neglected or abused children are at higher risk for school failure at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Because educational achievement is a powerful determinant of future life success, the educational needs of current and former foster care youth is of particular concern. In the present study, 115 former foster care youth enr…
The social “R & D” paradigm in child and youth services
Damaged parents
Declassification of Social Service Jobs
Declassification, a policy that reduces the educational and work-related experience required for public social service jobs, is a national trend that has a significant impact on administrative planning and utilization of personnel. This article describes the factors contributing to the declassification of social work positions and offers a set of strategies for future action
The Social Support Networks of Indochinese Refugees
Refugee sponsors and social service staff of agencies serving Indochinese refugees in Utah were surveyed to determine the relationship between social support and economic self-sufficiency among refugees. Agency staff and refugee sponsors rated contacts by family, work, school, and sponsors who are family members as most useful, with differences emerging between the two groups regarding other sources of social support. Respondents who had been ref…
Religiosity among Indochinese Refugees in Utah
This study reports on religious preferences and activity among Indochinese refugees resettled in Utah between 1975 and 1983. A significant group of these refugees adopted Western Christian religions, the majority affiliating with ethnic congregations. Reasons for change of religion emphasized interpersonal considerations and the need to re-establish social support networks. Refugees tended to rate religion as being important in their lives and re…
Counseling Troubled Adolescents
Susanne Mitchell was a graduate student at the School of Social Work, University of Utah. Anne White, M.S.W, is a staff social worker at the Diabetes Health Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Wynn S. Wright, M.S.W., was the Project Coordinator of the Utah Child Welfare Training Project, Graduate School of Social Work, University of Utah; and currently is psychiatric social worker at Primary Children's Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah. Peter 1. Pec…
Selecting an Agency Auspice for Family Preservation Services
Issues associated with providing intensive home-based family preservation services through public and private child welfare agency auspices are discussed. Program implementation, funding, service effectiveness, program efficiency, organizational politics, and other factors are examined to assess the strengths and limitations of each auspice
Event History Analysis
This paper demonstrates the use of event history analysis and reports on the correlates of service outcomes for the HOMEBUlLDERS model of Intensive Family Preservation Services (IPPS). The paper focuses on the use of the proportional hazards model, the assumption of proportionality, methods for dealing with violations of proportionality, and implications for collecting event data
An experiment in family reunification
Providing Better Opportunities for Older Children in the Child Welfare System
A growing number of children over age 10 reside in and emancipate from foster care every year. Older children face many of the same challenges as younger children, but they also have unique developmental needs. This article discusses older children in the child welfare system and finds: Approximately 47% of children in foster care are over age 11, and in 2001, 20% of children leaving foster care were over age 16. Older children need permanency, s…
The Sess multisite collaborative research initiative
Multidisciplinary intervention approaches are needed for meeting service needs for families in which substance abuse and mental health disorders may be interfering with child‐rearing. Experiences from the Starting Early Starting Smart (SESS) initiative, a 12‐site national collaborative investigation of integrating behavioural health services in early childhood and primary health care service settings for children aged 0–5 years and their families…
Assessing the educational achievements of adults who were formerly placed in family foster care
Case records and interviews concerning educational achievements of 1087 foster care alumni are presented. Youth were served by a voluntary agency in 23 communities across the USA between 1966 and 1998. Because the alumni were older than most foster care follow‐up studies, a more extensive picture of educational achievement was possible. High school graduation and college enrolment rates were comparable to or even greater than those of the general…
Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care
An evaluation of recovery factors for foster care alumni with physical or psychiatric impairments
Post-Secondary Education and Training Support Utilization by Students from Foster Care
The United States federal government estimated that 513,000 children were in foster care as of September 30, 2005. Neglected or abused children are at higher risk for school failure at the secondary and post-secondary levels. Because educational achievement is a powerful determinant of future life success, the educational needs of current and former foster care youth is of particular concern. In the present study, 115 former foster care youth enr…
Mental health of current and former recipients of foster care
This paper presents data about the emotional, behavioural and substance abuse disorders of youth in foster care and former recipients of foster care (‘alumni’) in the USA. The prevalence rates of these groups are compared to those of the youth and young adults in the US general population. The implications of these data for policy and program design are discussed
Disproportionality in education and employment outcomes of adult foster care alumni
Overcoming challenges to implementing and evaluating evidence-based interventions in child welfare
Exploring spirituality among youth in foster care
This study examined spiritual coping mechanisms, beliefs about spirituality and participation in spiritual activities and in other positive activities among adolescents in foster care. A multidimensional measure of spirituality was developed for face-to-face interviews with 188 youth (ages 14-17) from diverse racial/ethnic backgrounds in the United States. Findings revealed 95% of youth believe in God, over 70% believe God is 'creator' and God is…
Racial and ethnic differences in the outcomes of former foster youth
Ethnic group comparisons in mental health outcomes of adult alumni of foster care
The Relationship Between Homelessness and Mental Health Among Alumni of Foster Care
This study examined the relationship between history of homelessness and current mental health symptoms associated with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among 542 alumni of foster care (ages 19, 22, and 25 years). Approximately one in five (19.8%) alumni of foster care experienced homelessness since leaving care, and alumni experienced symptoms of psychological disorders associated with PTSD at rates significantly higher than the general pop…
Health outcomes for adults in family foster care as children
Structuring the Decision to Accept a Child Protection Report
Three agencies collaborated to construct, implement, and evaluate a screening and response time assessment for child protective services intake staff in Maryland. Evaluation activities included reliability testing of the assessment, a qualitative review of screening decisions conducted before and after implementation, and a survey of workers about the assessment and its implementation. Inter-rater reliability testing among field staff showed high…
Addressing common forms of child maltreatment
This paper reviews interventions for preventing the occurrence and recurrence of major types of child maltreatment. We begin with an overview of the challenges of establishing evidence‐based interventions to prevent child abuse and neglect in many countries, and underscore the importance of this need with child maltreatment incidence rates in the USA , and how much each type and subtype contribute to child out‐of‐home placement. Next, we identify…
Psychology (48 obras) · Medicine (42 obras) · Child Welfare and Adoption (38 obras) · Nursing (31 obras) · Political science (31 obras) · Child Abuse and Trauma (28 obras) · Foster care (26 obras) · Homelessness and Social Issues (17 obras) · Sociology (16 obras) · Welfare (16 obras)