PREDICTING USE OF CHILD-WELFARE SERVICES AFTER INTENSIVE FAMILY PRESERVATION SERVICES

This study explored whether selected client and service characteristic s could help predict families' use of other child welfare services aft er receiving intensive family preservation services (IFPS) Of 192 fami lies, over three quarters did not use out-of-home child placement serv ices for up to 6 months after receiving IFPS. Additionally, well over half of the families ended all service agreements with child welfare i n the same period. Polytomous logistic regression was wed to develop p rediction models The findings of this study have implications for the development and service delivery of IFPS programs. Specifically, the r ole of IFPS needs to be reconceptualized to more accurately reflect it s place on the child welfare services continuum.