Introduction
This report highlights the characteristics, constructs, and measures across all three cohorts of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW). NSCAW is a nationally representative, longitudinal survey of children and families who came in contact with the child welfare system. As the only source of nationally representative data on the well-being of children and families in the child welfare system (CWS), the goal of the study has been to provide information on a range of fundamental questions about the outcomes of children involved with the CWS. The study also provides insight on the interplay between the characteristics of children and families, their experiences with the CWS, service needs and receipt, and well-being outcomes, including physical and mental health, child development, social functioning, academic achievement, and behavioral adjustment.
This report provides a brief history of the survey across the three cohorts to date and information on the interviews completed by respondents. For each cohort and type of respondent, this report summarizes the characteristics of the interview protocol and the main type of survey questions and assessments of child and caregiver well-being used, either through the direct assessment of child or caregiver or through reports about the child from caregivers, teachers, and caseworkers. As the survey has been updated over time, this report provides information about new sections as well as updates based on new versions of instruments.
Purpose
The purpose of this crosswalk is to introduce NSCAW to interested individuals, helping to orient them across specific areas of information or constructs available in each cohort. The crosswalk provides details for those interested in using the public data, users accessing, analyzing, and publishing findings from the available data to answer research questions, and individuals learning about the NSCAW findings available in multiple publications and products.
Key Findings and Highlights
- The first section of the report provides a history of NSCAW and a summary description of the three cohorts, an overview of constructs and measures, analytic considerations for researchers interested in using NSCAW, and information about estimating differences among NSCAW cohorts on outcomes of interest for researchers that require the use of calibration weights.
- The second section is a table that provides overarching information on the constructs, key variables, derived variables, modules, and standardized assessments available for each cohort and, within each cohort, waves of data collection for each type of respondent.
- The third section is a table that provides detailed information about the characteristics of key variables, derived variables, modules, and standardized assessments.
Methods
- This report is based on a review and synthesis of each cohort’s data file user’s manual (DFUM), instrumentation volumes, sampling specifications, derived variables and analytic information volumes, and statistical analysis manuals.
- A literature review was completed to summarize information on standardized assessments used for data collection with children, caregivers, teachers, and caseworkers.
- A review of characteristics of administrative data linked to NSCAW was completed to provide information on linked data sets’ available variables.
Recommendations
- Since the release of NSCAW I baseline in the early 2000s, these data have been available and accessible to researchers. Findings on the relationship between safety, placements, permanency, and well-being have also been disseminated and accessible to practitioners and scholars alike (data from NSCAW are archived at the National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect, https://www.ndacan.acf.hhs.gov/datasets/datasets-list-nscaw.cfm ). NSCAW data have enabled data-driven discussions of policy and practice, with study findings being widely used to inform federal, state, and local policies and practices.
- This report can provide introductory materials to users of NSCAW products, serving as a guide to support researchers interested in the longitudinal study of child welfare outcomes by analyzing a survey with a complex design and multiple nationally representative cohorts.
Citation
Casanueva, C., Smith, K., Ringeisen, H., Dolan, M., Larrabee, H, & Domanico, R. (2022). Crosswalk of constructs and measures across three cohorts of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (OPRE Report #2022-XX). U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation.
NSCAW Research Group. (2002). Methodological lessons from the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being: The first three years of the USA's first national probability study of children and families investigated for abuse and neglect. Children and Youth Services Review, 24(6/7), 513—541.
Glossary
- The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS):
- The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) is composed of two data files for each fiscal year; one file contains adoption data and the other foster care data. Each adoption data file contains 37 elements that provide information on the adopted child’s sex, race, birth date, ethnicity, and prior relationship with the adoptive parents. The date the adoption was finalized, as well as dates parental rights were terminated, characteristics of birth and adoptive parents, and whether the child was placed from within the United States or from another country are also captured. The foster care data files contain 66 elements that provide information on child demographics including sex, birth date, race, and ethnicity. Information about the number of previous stays in foster care, service goals, availability for adoption, dates of removal and discharge, funding sources, and the biological and foster parents is also included in the foster care files.
- The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS):
- The National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) is a voluntary federal reporting system that receives data from all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Annually, states submit case-level data by constructing an electronic file of child-specific records for each report of maltreatment that resulted in a disposition (or finding) during the reporting year. A unique identifier is assigned to each child report, permitting longitudinal analysis of safety. Because it provides the ability to study safety longitudinally, NCANDS has emerged as the one national dataset used during the last two decades to conduct longitudinal studies of repeated involvement with the CWS due to child maltreatment. The NCANDS findings for substantiated cases are published annually in the Child Maltreatment report series, available 18 months after the close of the data collection year.