Campus Location
Abilene Campus (Residential)
Date of Award
5-2022
Document Type
Thesis
Department
Social Work
Degree Name
Master of Science
Committee Chair or Primary Advisor
Tom Winter
Second Committee Member or Secondary Advisor
Kay Jang
Third Committee Member or Committee Reader
Lauren Anderson
Abstract
This study sought to identify correlations between Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) activities and exit outcomes for children in foster care. Previous research on the impact of CASA has been inconclusive and offered mixed findings, so this study sought to build off of previous research while also exploring new areas of research that have not yet been investigated. Big Country CASA’s database, Optima, was utilized to retrieve data on cases that closed during the 2021 fiscal year (September 1, 2020, to August 31, 2021). This yielded a sample size of 75 cases. Through an analysis of these cases to test five different hypotheses, it was found that higher intensity, as defined by the number of times a CASA does case-related work per month, of CASA activities per case is correlated with shorter case length. Additionally, more frequent parent contact is associated with higher likelihood of reunification. No statistically significant differences were found in intensity between cases with multiple children versus cases with one child.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Hill, Grace Elizabeth, "Child Exit Types and Permanency Outcomes in Foster Care as Correlated to CASA Involvement" (2022). Digital Commons @ ACU, Electronic Theses and Dissertations. Paper 467.
https://digitalcommons.acu.edu/etd/467