FAMILY PRESERVATION SERVICES - WHAT DOES THE OUTCOME RESEARCH REALLY TELL US

This article examines the design of family preservation service evaluations. After a survey of recent evaluations with both positive and negative outcomes, it focuses on three widely reported experimental evaluations and concludes that their equivocal findings must be treated with great caution. The difficulties with alterative research strategies are acknowledged, but to address the questions of concern regarding the efficacy of family preservation services, smaller-scale, localized evaluations are advocated because they allow for greater control over experimental variables.