Scholars@Duke publication: What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing?

What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing?

Publication , Journal Article

Snyder-Fickler, E; Alban, C; Liu, Y; Rohrs, R; Blessing, L; Longenecker, TC; Sotolongo, EM; Byrd, J; Golonka, M; Evans, K; Hurst, J; Gifford, EJ

Published in: Child Youth Serv Rev

December 2023

Published version (DOI) Link to item

Intake reports from child protective service (CPS) agencies are the foundation for subsequent decisions and services within the child welfare system. They provide valuable information for understanding children's needs, yet the unstructured way that information is captured makes the information ascertained in these reports difficult to summarize. Utilizing CPS intake reports from a mid-sized urban county in the southeastern United States (N = 2,724), our study had three aims: (1) develop a coding system to abstract information from narrative CPS intake reports, (2) examine the prevalence of maltreatment subtypes, and (3) compare prevalence of maltreatment subtypes by screen-in/screen-out decisions. Improper discipline/physical abuse was the most common maltreatment subtype (34.6 %); over 40 % of reports involved a physical act toward the child not resulting in injury. Salient risk factors included caregiver drug use (20.6 %) and domestic violence (19 %). While substantial discrepancies were not found between screened-in and screened-out cases with respect to maltreatment types, maltreatment type-specific codes, or contributory factors, they were found for reporter type and child age. Our coding system to extract and assess child maltreatment intake narrative data can provide local agencies with descriptive information about why children come to their agency's attention and provide nuanced details regarding the children's and families' needs. This coding framework could be used to develop validated intake tools to better document and categorize child maltreatment which could inform the assessment/investigation process and create targeted prevention and intervention services for families that come to the attention of CPS.

Duke Scholars

Author Elizabeth Snyder-Fickler

Author Megan Golonka

Author Jillian Hurst Pediatrics, Children's Health Discovery Institute

Author Elizabeth Joanne Gifford Sanford School of Public Policy

Published In

Child Youth Serv Rev

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107198

ISSN

0190-7409

Publication Date

December 2023

Volume

155

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

Social Work
4410 Sociology
4409 Social work
1607 Social Work
1402 Applied Economics

Citation

APA

Chicago

ICMJE

MLA

NLM

Snyder-Fickler, E., Alban, C., Liu, Y., Rohrs, R., Blessing, L., Longenecker, T. C., … Gifford, E. J. (2023). What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing? Child Youth Serv Rev, 155. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107198

Snyder-Fickler, Elizabeth, Carmen Alban, Yuerong Liu, Rosie Rohrs, Laronda Blessing, Teresa C. Longenecker, Emilia M. Sotolongo, et al. “What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing?” Child Youth Serv Rev 155 (December 2023). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107198.

Snyder-Fickler E, Alban C, Liu Y, Rohrs R, Blessing L, Longenecker TC, et al. What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing? Child Youth Serv Rev. 2023 Dec;155.

Snyder-Fickler, Elizabeth, et al. “What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing?” Child Youth Serv Rev, vol. 155, Dec. 2023. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107198.

Snyder-Fickler E, Alban C, Liu Y, Rohrs R, Blessing L, Longenecker TC, Sotolongo EM, Byrd J, Golonka M, Evans K, Hurst J, Gifford EJ. What do child maltreatment reports to Child Protective Services tell us about the needs families and communities are experiencing? Child Youth Serv Rev. 2023 Dec;155.

Published In

Child Youth Serv Rev

DOI

10.1016/j.childyouth.2023.107198

ISSN

0190-7409

Publication Date

December 2023

Volume

155

Location

England

Related Subject Headings

Social Work
4410 Sociology
4409 Social work
1607 Social Work
1402 Applied Economics