Retrospective cohort study reveals rural-urban disparities in child welfare permanency, indicating that geographic context and race moderate exit pathways.
Key Points
To examine geospatial disparities in foster care permanency outcomes across rural and urban contexts and evaluate the moderating effect of race and ethnicity.
Analyzed national AFCARS data following a longitudinal cohort of children entering foster care in FY 2016 through FY 2019.
Conducted two sets of multinomial logistic regression models analyzing permanency exits with and without the reunification group.
Children in rural and nonmetropolitan urban areas demonstrated an increased likelihood of exiting care through guardianship compared to peers in large metropolitan areas.
Excluding reunified children, rural children experienced a significantly higher likelihood of non-permanent exits relative to large metropolitan peers.
Race and ethnicity significantly moderated the relationship between rural-urban classification and child welfare permanency outcomes.