Randomized and Quasi-experimental Evaluations of Program Impact in Child Welfare in Canada: a Review

Respondents to a recent survey identifi ed the evaluation of service effectiveness as the most pressing priority for child welfare research in Canada. After a comprehensive search, we located and reviewed 10 peer-reviewed impact evaluations, published during 1995–2005, of interventions in Canadian child welfare. Four evaluations were based on randomized controlled trials, and six on non-randomized, quasi-experimental designs. After a critical review of each study, we formulated the implications of the review, for the design and evaluation of child welfare interventions in Canada, in terms of three main needs: for more high-quality impact evaluations; for the evaluation of the effectiveness of a wider range of interventions; and for the implementation and evaluation, in the Canadian context, of interventions of mainly U.S. origin that incorporate the principles of the increasingly infl uential perspective of evidence-based practice.