Margaret L. Sieger, Ph.D

Professional Background

Margaret Lloyd Sieger, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor at the University of Kansas School of Medicine in the Department of Population Health. With an academic and professional background in social work, psychology, and the legal system, she brings an interdisciplinary lens to studying policies and interventions addressing parental substance use disorders (SUD) in child welfare, with particular attention to pregnant mothers and families with infants and young children.

Dr. Lloyd Sieger's research passion is driven by her lived experience as a person in recovery from SUD and her clinical experience working with children and adolescents affected by parental SUD. Personal experience helped clarify how critical access to recovery supports is to achieving SUD remission. These supports must be carefully studied and universally available if practitioners and scholars hope to reduce the harmful effects of SUD on children, parents, and communities.

Dr. Lloyd Sieger’s current research examines state-level changes to policy on substance exposed infants, family treatment court effectiveness, and best practice standards implementation. She has published over 50 articles and chapters in peer-reviewed literature on these topics. She is frequently invited to talk on these issues to audiences across the U.S. She also engages on social media platforms in order to disseminate important research findings to broader audiences.

Dr. Lloyd Sieger is passionate about inclusion and belonging for learners from all walks of life. Her approach to teaching and mentorship is trauma-informed and seeks to leverage the instructor-student relationship as a primary vehicle for learning. She has developed graduate courses on maternal-child health, social policy processes and financing, program evaluation, and substance use disorders.

• BA, Psychology , The University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ
• MS, Psychology , Avila University, Kansas City, MO
• PhD, School of Social Welfare, The University of Kansas, Lawrence, KS

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Research

Overview

Dr. Lloyd Sieger's research is focused on identifying better programs and policies to address substance use disorders (SUD) among pregnant and parenting mothers. Within these bounds, her work has advanced knowledge in three areas: (1) epidemiology and population trends; (2) clinical and court-based interventions; and (3) effects of existing policies on maternal-child outcomes for this population.

She has advanced epidemiological knowledge on SUD in the U.S. child welfare system with the first national longitudinal study documenting that the recent substantial increases in foster care placements due to parental SUD are driven largely by white children under age 4, but that Black/African American children are significantly less likely to reunify than their white peers. She has advanced research on family treatment courts, one of the most effective court-based interventions for this population, with an ongoing $1,000,000 National Institute of Justice grant supporting the development of a best practices implementation measure and the most rigorous outcomes evaluation to date. And, advancing knowledge of relevant social policy, she conducted groundbreaking research regarding all 50 states’ compliance with the primary federal policy on substance-exposed infants that mandates an untested intervention called a "plan of safe care". The results of this frequently-cited policy study documented the potential for significant increases in infants entering the child welfare system.

She continues to build evidence on plans of safe care using innovative data linkage and longitudinal methods. She works collaboratively with mothers with lived experience to guide all aspects of her research. Recognizing that her success was the direct result of mentorship and support from others, she continually seeks to uplift the next generation of practitioners and scholars.

• Public Policy & Health for Substance-Exposed Infant-Mother Dyads (K01), National Institute of Drug Abuse
• Improving Outcomes for Substance-Affected Families in the Child Welfare System (R01), National Institute of Drug Abuse
• Oklahoma Multi-Site Family Drug Court Model Standards Study , National Institute of Justice

• Lloyd, Margaret., H., Luczak, Stephanie, Lew, Samantha. 2019. Planning for safe care or widening the net?: A review and analysis of 51 states’ CAPTA policies addressing substance-exposed infants. Children and Youth Services Review, 99, 343-354. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.01.042
• Sieger, Margaret., Lloyd, Morin, Jennifer., C., Budris, Lisa., M., Sienna, Melissa, Ostfeld-Johns, Sharon, Hart, Lou, Morosky, Christopher. 2024. A Comparison of Two Statewide Datasets to Understand Population Prevalence of Substance Use in Pregnancy: Findings and Considerations for Policy and Research. Maternal and Child Health Journal, 28 (6), 1121-1131. http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10995-024-03914-6
• Lloyd, Margaret., H.. 2018. Poverty and Family Reunification for Mothers with Substance Use Disorders in Child Welfare. Child Abuse Review, 27 (4), 301-316. http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/car.2519
• Lloyd, Margaret., H., Brook, Jody. 2019. Drug testing in child welfare: A systematic review. Children and Youth Services Review, 104, 104389. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104389
• Lloyd Sieger, Margaret., H., Becker, Jessica, Earles, Kelly, Thompson‐Wise, Karin, Hagain, Kaitlin. 2023. The development and pilot testing of a family treatment court best practices assessment: The model standards implementation scale. Family Court Review, 61 (3), 586-601. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12739
• Lloyd, Margaret., H., Akin, Becci., A.. 2014. The disparate impact of alcohol, methamphetamine, and other drugs on family reunification. Children and Youth Services Review, 44, 72-81. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2014.05.013
• Lloyd, Margaret., H.. 2015. Family Drug Courts: Conceptual Frameworks, Empirical Evidence, and Implications for Social Work. Families in Society: The Journal of Contemporary Social Services, 96 (1), 49-57. http://dx.doi.org/10.1606/1044-3894.2015.96.7
• Lloyd Sieger, Margaret., H., Becker, Jessica, Brook, Jody. 2021. Family treatment court participation and permanency in a rural setting: Outcomes from a rigorous quasi‐experiment. Child and Family Social Work, 26 (4), 540-549. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/cfs.12836