COMPARING THE TIMING OF EXITS FROM SUBSTITUTE CARE

Longitudinal data on a cohort of 8,625 children who entered substitute care were used to compare the timing of three types of exit from subs titute care: discharge to family or guardian, adoption, and running aw ay from care. This involved examination of the ''hazard functions'' of each of the three exits including consideration of the associations b etween these hazards and child, family, and service system factors. Th e hazards of the three exits changed over time but in dissimilar ways. Furthermore, explanatory variables had contrasting impacts on the thr ee exits. These findings suggest that the exit process in substitute c are is best understood as a combination of a number of distinct but in terrelated exit processes.