Tara Black

The Canadian child welfare system response to exposure to domestic violence investigations

OBJECTIVE While child welfare policy and legislation reflects that children who are exposed to domestic violence are in need of protection because they are at risk of emotional and physical harm, little is known about the profile of families and children identified to the child welfare system and the systems response. The objective of this study was to examine the child welfare systems response to child maltreatment investigations substantiated for exposure to domestic violence (EDV). METHODS This study is based on a secondary analysis of data collected in the 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2003). Bivariate analyses were conducted on substantiated investigations. A binary logistic regression was also conducted to attempt to predict child welfare placements for investigations involving EDV. RESULTS What emerges from this study is that the child welfare systems response to EDV largely depends on whether it occurs in isolation or with another substantiated form of child maltreatment. For example, children involved in substantiated investigations that involve EDV with another form of substantiated maltreatment are almost four times more likely than investigations involving only EDV to be placed in a child welfare setting (Adjusted Odds Ratio=3.87, p<.001). CONCLUSIONS These findings suggest that the involvement of child welfare has not resulted in the widespread placement of children exposed to domestic violence. The Canadian child welfare system is substantiating EDV at a high rate but is concluding that these families do not require child protection services. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS There is debate in the literature about how the child welfare sector should respond to cases involving exposure to domestic violence. Contrary to conventional wisdom, this study finds that children who are the subject of investigations involving substantiated exposure to domestic violence are less likely to be removed from their home than children experiencing other forms of maltreatment. Strategies need to be developed to counter misperceptions about the intrusiveness of child welfare, and discussions need to take place about when it is appropriate for child welfare to become involved when children are exposed to domestic violence.

Emotional maltreatment in Canada: Prevalence, reporting and child welfare responses (CIS2)

OBJECTIVES To determine the prevalence and characteristics of reports of emotional maltreatment (EMT) in Canada, as well as changes in these reports between 1998 and 2003. METHODS This study is based on a secondary analysis of data collected in the first and second Canadian Incidence Study. Emotional maltreatment (excluding exposure to intimate partner violence) investigations were categorized into six groups: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and other maltreatment as the only investigated form of maltreatment, and these same three groups were examined when they co-occurred with another form of maltreatment. RESULTS Both the rate of emotional-abuse-only investigations and emotional-neglect-only investigations increased almost threefold from 1998 to 2003. Substantiated emotional neglect investigations had the highest rate of transfer to ongoing services. Half of the investigations involving single forms of emotional maltreatment occurred for six months or more. Finally, emotional neglect cases (in single form and when it co-occurs with another form of maltreatment) were more likely to be associated with emotional harm and longer duration of maltreatment. CONCLUSIONS In 2003, EMT represented a significant increasing form of maltreatment and is detected nearly twice as often in situations in which abuse or neglect are also reported. Reports of emotional abuse are two and a half times more frequent than reports of emotional neglect. Nevertheless, lack of emotional engagement may also be difficult to identify, since an omission is more difficult to detect. Reports of EMT often reveal situations of chronic victimization that have been the subject of previous reports and are associated with greater emotional impact.

Characteristics of Young Parents Investigated and Opened for Ongoing Services in Child Welfare

This study uses a national child welfare dataset to examine the profile of young parents who are the subject of maltreatment-related investigation and to identify which factors determine service provision from the child welfare system at the conclusion of the investigation. Specifically, it examines how workers in the child welfare system decide which young parents require ongoing services the conclusion of a maltreatment related investigation where other risk factors are also being assessed. It found that young parents are struggling with a number of issues including poverty, housing, mental health, violence and children who are exhibiting functioning concerns. Workers in the child welfare system provide ongoing services to young parents particularly in investigations where they have noted concerns around drug/solvent use, cognitive impairment, mental health issues, physical health issues and few social supports. The opportunity to target interventions for the specific concerns for this very vulnerable population is evident.

Protection of Children from Physical Maltreatment in Canada: An Evaluation of the Supreme Court's Definition of Reasonable Force

In 2004, the Supreme Court of Canada set out seven criteria to distinguish reasonable from abusive corrective force with children. We tested the validity of those criteria by mapping them onto a nationally representative data set of substantiated cases of physical abuse. The courts criteria defining reasonable force actually characterized the majority of cases of child physical maltreatment in Canada. These cases were more likely to be characterized by the use of spanking in the family than by each of the criteria set out by the Supreme Court. One in five cases was not characterized by any of the courts criteria, and virtually none were characterized by all of them. The findings provide stronger support for abolishing physical punishment than for legal attempts to narrow its definition.

Untangling Risk of Maltreatment from Events of Maltreatment: An Analysis of the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2008)

This paper describes the methodological changes that occurred across cycles of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS), specifically outlining the rationale for tracking investigations of families with children at risk of maltreatment in the CIS-2008 cycle. This paper also presents analysis of data from the CIS-2008 examining the differences between those investigations focusing on risk of maltreatment and those investigations focusing on an incident of maltreatment. The CIS-2008 uses a multi-stage sampling design. The final sample selection stage involves identifying children for which (a) there was a concern of a specific incident of maltreatment, and (b) there was no specific concern of past maltreatment but the risk of future maltreatment was being assessed. The present analysis included 11,925 investigations based on specific inclusion criteria. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted to better understand maltreatment and risk only investigations in the CIS-2008. Families investigated for alleged maltreatment, compared to those investigated for future risk, were more likely to live in a home that was overcrowded, live with the presence of at least one household hazard, and run out of money for basic necessities. Younger children were more likely to be the subject of a risk investigation. Caregiver alcohol abuse, household hazards, and certain child functioning issues were associated with an increased likelihood in a finding of substantiated maltreatment. Several primary caregiver functioning concerns were associated with the decision to substantiate risk, as well as household hazards and overcrowding. This study represents the first exploration of a national profile of risk only investigations. The analyses provided an opportunity to examine differences in the profile of children and families in risk only investigations and child maltreatment investigations, revealing several important differences.

Correlates of Substantiated Emotional Maltreatment in the Second Canadian Incidence Study

The objective of this study was to determine the correlates of substantiated psychological maltreatment (PMT) in Canada on functions of maltreatment characteristics, child profile, household profile, and child protection services interventions. This study is based on a secondary analysis of data collected in the second Canadian Incidence Study. PMT investigations were categorized into six groups: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and other maltreatment as single form, and these same three groups when they co-occurred with another form of maltreatment. Six logistic regressions, comparing all pairs of groups, were carried out. Cases of PMT (single form) were more chronic and associated with greater adverse emotional impact than other forms of maltreatment. Mothers of psychologically maltreated children had more mental health issues. Emotional neglect cases were more complex (e.g., substance abuse, mental health, and social housing). The three co-occurrent groups present more negative factors but more risk factors are observed when PMT are also observed (e.g., emotional harm, alcohol abuse, housing problems, chronicity, and referral to other services).

Examining Child Welfare Decisions and Services for Asian-Canadian Versus White-Canadian Children and Families in the Child Welfare System:

Using administrative child welfare data from the Ontario Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (OCANDS), this study compared the profiles of Asian-Canadian and White-Canadian children and families that experienced a case closure after an investigation instead of being transferred to ongoing child protection services (CPS). Child protection investigations involving Asian-Canadian and White-Canadian children and families that were transferred to ongoing CPS presented a different profile of case characteristics and caregiver and child clinical needs. Asian-Canadian children and families received ongoing CPS for over a month longer than White-Canadian children and families and were less likely (odds ratio [OR] = 0.39) to be reinvestigated for any form of maltreatment-related concerns within 1 year after case closure. It appears that child protection investigations involving Asian-Canadian children and families are less likely to be closed prematurely than White-Canadian children and families, and the child protection system may be meeting the needs of Asian-Canadian communities. Alternatively, it is possible there is unaccounted biases that may be reflective of systemic problem of discriminative practices in the child protection system. Further research is needed to explore this phenomenon.

Factors associated with racial differences in child welfare investigative decision-making in Ontario, Canada

Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services. The results indicate that Black children were more likely to be investigated than White children, but there was little evidence to suggest that workers in Ontario child welfare agencies made the decision to substantiate, transfer to ongoing services, or place the child in out-of-home care based on race alone. Black and White children differed significantly with respect to child characteristics, characteristics of the investigation, caregiver risk factors, and socioeconomic circumstances. When adjusting for these characteristics, Black families had 33% greater odds (OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.40; p=<0.001) of being transferred to ongoing services compared to White families. Among Black families, the assessed quality of the parent-child relationship and severe economic hardship were the most significant and substantial contributors to the decision to provide child welfare services. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.

Keeping up with the technology? Technological advances and child maltreatment research

Social media and other internet-based technologies are ubiquitous in the lives of many people around the world. Two-thirds of people have access to a mobile phone, more than half have access to internet, and nearly 45% use social media. These numbers are rapidly increasing Kemp, 2017); almost a quarter of a billion people accessed the internet for the first time in 2017 (Kemp, 2018). Places with previously low rates of internet access are seeing astounding increases; Africa, for example, has seen the number of internet users increase by more than 20% year after year (Kemp, 2018). In the past decade, Facebook, the most widely used social media platform, has grown from 100 million monthly active users to almost 2.2 billion; almost one-third of people use Facebook at least monthly (Statista, 2018). Facebook and other social media platforms are a means of communication, based around a website or internet service, where the content being communicated is produced by the people using the service (Bright, Margetts, Hale, & Yaserri, 2014). While social media use is growing among people of all ages (Kemp, 2017), young people, in particularly are using social media at exceptionally high rates: 93% of young people in the USA use a social networking site (Lenhart, 2015), as do 85% of European adolescents (Eurostat, 2015). Less is known about the age distribution of social media users in other areas of the world, but social media use is, overall, common in most areas (Kemp, 2017). As social media and other internet-based technologies continue to expand, it will be important to understand the impact of these technologies on children and adolescents, and also the ways in which these technologies may be used to improve research and services for young people who have experienced abuse or neglect. In this special section of the International Journal of Child Abuse and Neglect, we begin to explore how social media and other technology may be used in child maltreatment research. The section starts with a scoping review prepared by a group of researchers from the USA and Canadian government personnel (i.e., Schwab-Reese, Hovdestad, Tonmyr, & Fluke, this issue). The authors conducted a scoping review about The Potential Use of Social Media and other Internet-Related Data and Communications for Child Maltreatment Surveillance and Epidemiological Research exploring how social media and other internet-based technological advances may be used in child maltreatment incidence or prevalence studies. While many approaches are promising, there are issues with that suggest they should be used to triangulate, rather than replace, traditional data collection methods. Generalizability of results, particularly to low socioeconomic status, racialized and older communities, continues to be an issue, as does the predictive power of algorithms based on these approaches. Despite these limitations, the expanding presence of social media and internet-based technologies suggests child maltreatment researchers must evolve to remain connected to the lives of maltreated children and youth. The remaining three articles in this special section focus on the application of social media and other technology-based approaches to child maltreatment research and prevention. In the first article, Canadian practitioners and academics partners to (i.e., Wall, Jenney, & Walsch, this issue) discuss their experiences developing a novel technology-based data collection method for children in Conducting Evaluation Research with Children Exposed to Violence. The authors explore how technological advances, specifically tablet-based applications, have impacted data collection for children exposed to intimate partner violence. They discuss how such advancements may be more accessible, more secure, more confidential, and may alleviate risks to children involved in research compared to traditional data collection methods. However, the authors found that using technology for data collection, such as tablet-based application, requires more funding, resources, technological support (e.g., updating and upgrading) than traditional data collection methods. In the second article, academics from the USA (i.e., Negriff & Valente, this issue) used social media data to assess if characteristics of online social networks contribute to the elevated risk for exposure to online sexual content and high-risk sexual behavior experienced by maltreated children. In Structural Characteristics of the Online Social Networks of Maltreated Youth and Offline Sexual Risk Behavior, the authors completed a pilot study about maltreated youth’s Facebook profiles to examine characteristics of the network

Police Charging Decisions in Child Maltreatment Investigations: Findings from the 2008 Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect

ABSTRACT The objective of this study was to use logistic regression and examine factors that influence charging decisions by the police during child maltreatment investigations. An estimated 4,808 substantiated child maltreatment investigations that involved police were obtained from the 2008 Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect. Of the 4,808 cases examined, police laid charges in about one-third of the cases. Controlling for all other factors, police were 1.6 times more likely to lay charges in physical abuse cases and 2.5 times more likely to lay charges in sexual abuse cases. Other factors associated with police charging decisions include: older victim, cases with multiple types of maltreatment, cases opened for ongoing services, and cases of the child living in a house known to have drugs or household hazards. The article discusses the results and their implications for child welfare policy and practice.