Child Maltreatment

Achieving permanency is a main goal of the child welfare system. To promote timely achievement of permanency, it is important to understand the determinants associated with permanency outcomes. This study aims to examine the length of time children spend in foster care and identify factors associated with achievement of permanency using administrative data from one state spanning a six-year timeframe and including a final sample of 1,874 children. Determinants associated with achievement of permanency were examined through multivariate survival analyses using Cox proportional hazards regression models...

Reports of child maltreatment vary by neighborhood characteristics, yet the influence of housing affordability is less understood. The current study examines the relationship between reports of suspected child maltreatment and the spatial distribution of affordable housing across 2,341 census tracts in Los Angeles County, California. Bayesian conditionally autoregressive model results indicate that neighborhoods where residents paid a greater share of their income in rent had fewer reports of suspected child maltreatment, while neighborhoods with a higher number of subsidized rental units had more reports...

Economic support programs for low-income families may play an important role in preventing child abuse and neglect. In the United States, childcare subsidies are provided to low-income families who meet certain requirements to offset the high cost of childcare. States have flexibility in setting many policies related to the provision of childcare subsidies, which results in a great deal of variation in how the programs operate between states. One policy dimension on which states vary is the number of employment hours required to receive childcare subsidies...

We examined TikTok user engagement when parents post videos engaging in psychological maltreatment (PM) behaviors towards their children, using the APSAC-endorsed definition of PM. A new TikTok account was created and seeded with PM behavior videos identified previously; similar videos then appeared on the new account's "For You Page" (an algorithmic feed curated by TikTok). Researchers identified 35 creators who had posted at least one PM behavior video, resulting in their full profile being coded ( N = 2684 videos) for five engagement metrics, presence of children, and presence of PM behavior...

State responses to substance use during pregnancy have included policies designed to increase access to substance use treatment as well as punish such substance use. Prior research has found that punitive policies are associated with increased rates of child maltreatment reporting, but it is unclear if the presence of punitive-promoting policies also moderate the association between access-promoting polices and maltreatment reports. Using data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System and state-level fixed effects models, this study investigates how interactions between access-promoting and punitive prenatal substance use policies are associated with rates of substance use-associated maltreatment reports among infants...

Youth suicidal ideation is a prevalent experience, particularly among youth exposed to maltreatment, with a variety of indicators such as youth statements of ideation. To better understand suicidal ideation, and the associations with youth mental health outcomes, a fruitful path may be through the study of the dimensions (e.g., severity, frequency) of maltreatment exposure. While there exists extensive work on methods to best operationalize casefile records of maltreatment, such work has not been undertaken for youth self-reports, which are an important indicator of youth functioning following exposure...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Regardless of compliance to coercion by an alleged perpetrator, child maltreatment is abuse in any form. However, the extent to which coercion is described as an obligation (mandatory compliance) or permission (optional compliance) is legally relevant. The present investigation examined how attorneys question children about coercion and how children describe coercion in courtroom investigations of alleged child sexual abuse, and whether such language influences jurors' perceptions of children's testimony. Study 1 assessed 64 transcripts of children's testimonies and revealed that both attorneys and children use coercive language...

While a number of studies have examined the risk of reentry after exiting foster care, few studies have examined the risk of rereport to Child Protective Services (CPS) in the United States. Understanding more about rereports may help identify targets for supportive services that prevent reentry and promote safety. This study is the first to use nation-wide linked data to examine the risk of rereport for reunified children. The sample included children reunified after experiencing their first episode in foster care with at least one CPS report prior to care...

The present study investigates how parenting stress mediates the intergenerational continuity of childhood adversity in teenage mothers. Childhood adversity experiences of caregivers significantly affect their offspring's exposure to childhood adversity. However, little is known about the mechanisms linking childhood adversity across generations. The study measures how parental distress and parent-child dysfunctional interaction mediate the association between teen mothers' childhood adversity and their offspring's adversity, measuring when the offspring reached 11...

This study examined the role of character evidence and other issues in criminal appeals of child sexual abuse (CSA) convictions. Character evidence includes uncharged acts and character witnesses who testify to another's reputation or opinion and is offered to prove an individual's propensities. Examining 168 appellate court opinions reviewing CSA convictions between 2005 and 2015 in Maricopa County, Arizona, we found that when specific types of evidence were at issue, they were most often character evidence issues (49%)...

The United States continues to grapple with longstanding policies and systems that have adversely impacted historically marginalized communities who identify (and are racialized) as non-White. These stem from a legacy of structural and systemic racism, and the long-term consequences of sanctioned colonization. This legacy rests upon a field of scholarly research that is similarly fraught with white supremacy. As a field, we must examine the process of producing and publishing the body of evidence that has codified harmful policies and practices...

In this commentary, the editorial team of Child Maltreatment extends and expands on APSAC's position on diversity, equity, inclusion, and justice, affirms our commitment and plans for addressing these issues in this publication, and highlights articles in this issue that continue the discussion about race and racism in the child welfare and child protection systems.

Survivors of child sex trafficking (SCST) experience high rates of adverse health outcomes. Amidst the duration of their victimization, survivors regularly seek healthcare yet fail to be identified. This study sought to utilize artificial intelligence (AI) to identify SCST and describe the elements of their healthcare presentation. An AI-supported keyword search was conducted to identify SCST within the electronic medical records (EMR) of ∼1.5 million patients at a large midwestern pediatric hospital...

Recent editorials published in Child Maltreatment bring much needed attention to racism in child maltreatment reporting and investigation. In this commentary, we extend these efforts by responding to Valentino et al., (2012) and addressing prior omissions in our race-related work by explicitly discussing the role of racism in our explanation of key study findings. Together with scholars with expertise in the impact of racism on children and families, this commentary (a) discusses theoretical models of child maltreatment and of the influence of racism on parenting and child development; (b) discusses parental responses to racism in relation to the Valentino et al...

Infants (<1 year old) are the age group in Australia with the highest rate of involvement with child protection. Many jurisdictions across Australia and internationally are implementing policies focused on prenatal planning and targeted support.This study investigates Australian trends in prenatal and infant child protection notifications, substantiations and out-of-home care; and the extent of over-representation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander infants. Data was provided by the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare for the period 1 July 2012-30 June 2019...

The COVID-19 pandemic and associated mitigation efforts created stress that threatened parent and child well-being. Conditions that increase stress within families heighten the likelihood of child abuse, but social support can mitigate the impact. This short-term investigation considered whether cumulative risk, COVID-19 specific risk, and emotional support (one aspect of social support), were associated with child abuse potential during the pandemic. Additionally, we investigated whether emotional support moderated the association between COVID-19 specific risk and child abuse potential, and associations between child abuse potential and emotionally positive and emotionally negative parenting...

Evidence suggests that child maltreatment is a risk factor for adolescent suicidal behavior. However, the differential influence of distinct forms of child maltreatment on adolescent suicide attempts is understudied and the factors that might exacerbate or ameliorate these associations warrant attention. We examined the associations between two distinct forms of child maltreatment (threat and deprivation) and suicide attempt history, and investigated whether executive function domains moderated these associations...

Little is known about the impact of child welfare system-level factors on child mortality as an outcome within foster care. Using data from the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System, 2009-2018, we examined the associations between county-level sociodemographic, foster care performance, and judicial reform characteristics with all-cause mortality rates. Results of random effects negative binomial regression analyses showed that higher proportions of younger children (<1 year: IRR = 1...

Despite increased awareness of sex trafficking of minors in the U.S., prosecution of traffickers remains difficult, in part because of victim uncooperativeness. There are questions about how that uncooperativeness is expressed, whether it is evident in successfully prosecuted cases, and whether it is unique to trafficked minors or it emerges in similar age victims of sexual abuse. To provide insight relevant to these questions, we compared appellate opinions in two types of successfully prosecuted criminal cases: sex trafficking and sexual abuse of adolescent victims...