Economic predictors of child maltreatment in an Australian population-based birth cohort

A correlation between socioeconomic disadvantage and child maltreatment has long been observed, but the drivers of this association are poorly understood. We sought to estimate the effects of economic factors on risk of child maltreatment after adjusting for other known influences using the Australian Temperament Project, a population-based birth cohort of 2443 individuals and their parents. We used logistic regression to estimate associations of childhood economic factors (parental education, occupation, and unemployment; type of housing; and retrospective perception of poverty) with retrospective reports of perceived child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and witnessing of domestic violence), controlling for demographic factors, parental mental health and substance use, and child health. We then used these estimates to approximate the proportions of child maltreatment—population attributable fractions—that are theoretically preventable by addressing childhood economic disadvantage. Economic factors were associated with all types of child maltreatment. For the most part, these associations diminished only partially when controlling for noneconomic confounders, supporting hypotheses of causal relationships. Jointly, economic factors were significant predictors of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing of domestic violence but not of emotional abuse or neglect. Retrospective perceptions of childhood poverty were, in particular, strongly associated with most forms of child maltreatment but not with sexual abuse after accounting for other economic factors. We estimated that 27% of all child maltreatment was jointly attributable to economic factors. These findings suggest that strategies that reduce economic disadvantage are likely to hold significant potential to reduce the prevalence of child maltreatment.     

Adolescents in Treatment: Effects of Parental Substance Abuse on Treatment Entry Characteristics and Outcomes

SUMMARY

Research strongly supports an increased risk of substance use disorders among the adolescent children of addicted parents. However, little documentation exists of how these adolescents fare when they present for treatment. This article uses data taken from a two-state study on the effects of adolescent substance abuse treatment to examine the characteristics of adolescents with substance-abusing parents and their outcomes following an episode of outpatient treatment. Although such adolescents enter treatment with greater problem severity in a range of areas, outcomes appear similar to adolescents with no substance-abusing parents. The impact of family and individual counseling on outcomes was also examined, demonstrating mixed results for adolescents with substance-abusing parents.     

Engaging substance-affected families in child welfare: parent perspectives of a parenting intervention at program initiation and completion

Families affected by substance abuse are at an increased risk of child welfare involvement and poor child welfare outcomes. One strategy to improve outcomes among these families is evidence-based parenting interventions. While these interventions show the potential for advancing the child welfare field, they have not been widely and rigorously evaluated with birth parents, especially those affected by substance abuse, who face marked vulnerability and marginalization. We sought to draw on parents’ expertise and to understand their first and changing impressions throughout involvement in a parenting intervention, as well as overall impressions at program completion. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a purposive sample of 10 parents who were involved in child welfare and a family drug treatment court. All parents were affected by parental substance use and had recently completed the Strengthening Families Program. Interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed for prominent themes. The study’s findings showed that parents described four key themes that influenced their perspectives of the parenting intervention: program reputation as communicated by peers, relevance and applicability of the program, children’s involvement and enjoyment of the program, and program structure issues that pointed to the need for high-quality group facilitation. Implications for practice and research are discussed.     

When the rehabilitation ideal fails: a study of parental rights termination

This study explored the circumstances of parents whose extreme neglect and abuse of their young children justified the drastic state action of termination of their parental rights. Records of 97 children age 6 and under whose parental rights were terminated between 1991 and 1997 in Minnesota were reviewed. Profiles of parents and children were drawn from these data, and a "risk pool" of parents whose children became wards of the state was identified. Guidelines are drawn from this "risk pool" that may help alert practitioners to those parents who are unlikely to safely maintain their children. Questions and implications for policy and practice are highlighted.     

Termination visits in closed adoptions

Although either voluntary or involuntary termination of parental rights may be in a child's best interests, it is understandably difficult for a child to cope with final separation from parents. A "goodbye visit" can greatly help the separation process for both the child and the parents.     

The Child Abuse Risk Evaluation Dutch Version (CARE-NL): A retrospective validation study

Abstract

The Child Abuse Risk Evaluation – Dutch version (CARE-NL) is a structured professional guideline for assessing the risk of all types of child abuse. The CARE-NL comprises 18 risk factors: eight Parental characteristics, three Parent-Child interaction factors, five Family factors, one Child vulnerability factor, and an extra factor for child sexual abuse risk. We examined interrater reliability and predictive accuracy of the instrument in a retrospective study at Advice and Reporting Centers on Child Abuse (ARCCA) in The Netherlands. The ARCCA files contained limited information on Parental risk factors, while parental characteristics, such as mental disorder and substance abuse, are the most important risk factors for (repeated) child abuse. On the other hand, the majority of the files included ample information on child and family characteristics. The CARE-NL could be reliably coded by trained raters and the predictive accuracy for out-of-home placement (AUC = .73) and placement of the child under court supervision (AUC = .78), at two years follow-up, was adequate. Use of the CARE-NL ensures that the assessment of the risk of child abuse focuses on the most important, empirically based risk factors in a structured and coherent way.     

Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect: Do Parents Show Improvement in Parental Mental Health Problems and Parental Stress?

Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN) is an evidence-based program for families with children who experience maltreatment. This clinical trial is the first evaluation of MST-CAN in a German-speaking area. Parental psychological problems and parental stress have been shown to be risk factors for child abuse and neglect. By the end of treatment, parents reported significantly less psychological distress than before the start of MST-CAN. Six months after treatment, this reduction was still evident. However, parents did not report any significant reduction of parental stress at any of the three time points. MST-CAN is an effective intervention for child maltreatment that not only combats child abuse and neglect but also has the potential to alleviate parental psychological distress.     

Engagement in Child Protective Services: The Role of Substance Abuse,Intimate Partner Violence and Race

Effectively engaging parents has been a continuing challenge for child protection workers. A lack of engagement can lead to significant negative consequences for families. This preliminary study explored the ability of family factors (e.g.; legal involvement, history with child protective services, substance abuse, child placement, intimate partner violence, identifying as Black, Latino or biracial) to predict parent engagement with child welfare services. A four dimensional measure of engagement with child protective services (Yatchmenoff, Res Soc Work Pract 15(2):84–96, 2005) was used which included receptivity, buy-in, working relationship and mistrust. The variables of parental substance abuse, intimate partner violence and identifying as Black, Latino or biracial were significant predictors of all four dimensions of engagement although each dimension was predicted by a unique combination of these factors. Substance abuse positively predicted engagement while intimate partner violence and identifying as Black, Latino or biracial negatively predicted engagement. The implications of these findings for child protection practice are described. Recommendations are made for future research.     

Characteristics and factors impacting reunification outcomes among Vietnamese immigrant families in the child welfare system

Using a mixed methods approach, this study examined reunification processes and outcomes among Vietnamese immigrant families involved in the child welfare system. A quantitative design was used to describe characteristics and reunification outcomes of Vietnamese immigrant children and families who are involved in family reunification services. Qualitative methods were used to explore factors that may influence reunification outcomes among Vietnamese families.The quantitative portion of the study included an exploratory design using administrative data from one county in the Northern California. The quantitative sample (N = 32) included children entering the foster care system for 8 or more days between January 1, 2001 and December 31, 2007 from child welfare administrative data (CWS/CMS) which was merged with eligibility data (CalWIN) in order to obtain parent and child place of birth to determine country of origin. The qualitative study included an exploratory design using interview data from child welfare workers (N = 8) and Vietnamese immigrant parents who had successfully reunified (N = 7).Quantitative results indicated that the most common type of maltreatment leading to entry into care was caretaker absence or incapacity, an abuse category that is often used in cases of parental substance abuse. 53.8% of Vietnamese immigrant children in the quantitative sample reunified with their parents, which is close to the national rate of reunification. Qualitative findings pointed to the importance of the following factors within reunification: acculturation-related issues, parental substance abuse, child welfare worker cultural competency and issues related to service availability and effectiveness. Implications for social work practice and policy are discussed.     

Best Practices in the Treatment of Substance-Abusing Women in the Child Welfare System

ABSTRACT

This paper reviews the literature on women's chemical dependency and its effects on their children. Many risk factors (e.g., a history of traumatic exposure) and consequences (interference with parenting) of substance abuse are unique for women, giving rise to special treatment needs of substance-abusing women with children. Substance-abusing mothers also experience unique barriers to receiving the services they need to recover, such as absence of child care and lack of gender-specific treatment in their communities. Model programs are described and recommendations are offered for best treatment practices for women with chemical dependency who present in the child welfare system.     

Parental Substance Use and Foster Care Reentry

Foster care involvement due to parental substance use is a common problem with many challenges associated with service delivery. Using administrative data from a Midwestern state between the years 2009 and 2015 (N = 17,420), this study examines characteristics of substance-abusing families at the time of entry into the foster care system and estimates the risk of reentry subsequent to reunification. Bivariate findings and survival analysis for reentry suggests substance-using parents are more likely to be involved in additional allegations associated with foster care involvement. These results highlight the need for improved services integration and coordinated delivery among service systems.     

Child sexual abuse: community concerns in urban Tanzania

The aim of this study was to explore community perceptions about child sexual abuse in Tanzania. Thirteen focus group discussions were conducted with adult community members. The core category, children's rights challenged by lack of agency, was supported by eight categories. Aware but distressed portrayed feelings of hopelessness, lack of trust in the healthcare and legal systems reflected perceived malpractice, decreased respect for children's rights referred to poor parental care and substance abuse, myths justifying CSA illustrated cultural beliefs to rationalize child sexual abuse, disclosure threatened by fear of stigma and discrimination aligned the manifestations that prevent disclosure, actions driven by economic circumstances described the economical dependence of victims, urging a change in procedures reflected informants' wish to ally with local governance and pressure groups, and willingness to act indicated the community's role in supporting victims. The study showed how lack of agency calls for efforts to increase children's human rights at all levels.     

Naming Your Child in a Same‐Sex Parenting Situation: Identity of the Child,Parental Status,and Kinship Ties

In Quebec, since the adoption in 2002 of the Act instituting civil unions and establishing new rules of filiation, same sex partners can be officially recognized as the parents of a child. They are invested with all the rights and obligations related to parentage and parental authority, including naming. From a qualitative analysis of interviews realized in 2014 in Quebec with 18 mothers and fathers in lesbian and gay couple relationships, this article examines the nomination processes of children born from gay or lesbian couples in terms of the modalities of entry into parenthood (biological, social, adoptive). Beyond innovations and specificities related to means of family formation where filiation is only partially or not at all rooted in biology and their categorization as same‐sex families, the name passed to the child is often considered by those parents as a means to consolidate “social” parental statuses and fraternal links.     

Parents’ Experiences of Reporting Child Sexual Abuse in Urban Tanzania

This article reports parental experiences of legally reporting child sexual abuse in Tanzania. Based on in-depth interviews, four types of sexual abuse incidents are portrayed. Each evokes different reactions from parents and the community. An incident characterized as the innocent child was associated with a determination to seek justice. The forced-sex youth elicited feelings of parental betrayal of their child. The consenting curious youth resulted in uncertainty of how to proceed, while the transactional-sex youth evoked a sense of parental powerlessness to control the child because of low economic status. Differentiating between types of sexual abuse incidents may increase awareness of the complexities of child sexual abuse reporting. Education on laws regulating sexual offenses and a functional national child protection system are needed to address child sexual abuse complexities and safeguard the rights of children in Tanzania.     

Explaining heterogeneity in the child poverty rate among immigrant families: Differences by parental citizenship

Much of the debate about child poverty among immigrant families has centered on factors that place immigrant children at a high risk for poverty. What is missing in this debate and the literature is that children in immigrant families are economically heterogeneous and that children in naturalized families are doing as well as or better than children in native families in terms of economic status. To examine the heterogeneous economic status of children in immigrant families, this study compared children's poverty rates by parental nativity and citizenship status, decomposing demographic risk factors of child poverty. The results indicate that whereas lower parental education and employment status largely explain the relatively higher poverty rate among children in noncitizen families, higher parental education and employment rates and a lower rate of single parenthood explain why children in naturalized families have a lower rate of poverty than those in noncitizen families. Implications of these findings are discussed in detail.     

Agency Practices Affecting Social Workers Who Treat Substance-Abusing Clients

Abstract

This study interviewed 115 MSWs with substance abuse training working in general social service agencies to determine if they viewed their settings as facilitating or hindering their work with substance-abusing clients. This study builds on the work of Lightfoot and Orford (1986) who found that social workers were more hindered than helped by their agencies' practices regarding substance-abusing clients.

Results: A majority of workers viewed their agencies as facilitating substance abuse-related work through support from supervisors and administrators, availability of substance abuse training, workers' freedom to choose clients, and opportunities to supervise others on substance abuse-related issues. Supervisor data corroborated these findings. This is a hopeful sign for the profession contrasting with considerable social work literature documenting the profession's historic ambivalence toward substance-abusing clients.     

Permanency mediation: a path to open adoption for children in out-of-home care

This research study examined the experiences of birthparents, permanent parents, and mediators in permanency mediation following a state child welfare agency's recommendation for termination of parental rights. Permanency mediation provides participants with the opportunity to collaborate in an agreement that entails a voluntary surrender of parental rights by the birthparents and the placement of children with permanent parents in open adoption or guardianship. Findings suggested that permanency mediation has the potential to be a successful practice. Participants, however, need additional support during and after mediation to help them understand open adoption and deal with the changes in family structures and boundaries, address their own feelings and concerns, and establish reliable means of communication with each other.     

Parental substance misuse and compliance as factors determining child removal: A sample from the Victorian Children's Court in Australia

Purpose

The current study explores the role of parental substance misuse in child protection cases and examines its impact as a factor in decisions on child removal in court orders.

Methods

A cohort of 273 child protection cases from the Victorian Children's Court was reviewed. This sample consisted of cases where children have been removed (Custody to Secretary Order, n = 142 cases) or remained with parents (Supervision Order, n = 131 cases). Data was extracted on parental substance misuse in single and two parent households as well as compliance with court-based and child protection directives.

Principle results

Parental substance misuse (PSM) was present in 51% of child protection cases sampled and among those, poly-substance abuse was common (67%). PSM was associated with Indigenous status; younger age of child at court appearance; having a court-proven case of emotional abuse, less compliance with child protection services and a longer time between notification to authorities and final court decision. In one parent households, only parental compliance is the primary factor underlying decisions of child removal. In two parent households, the decision to remove a child from the family home was ultimately driven by parental compliance, and to a lesser extent by PSM of illicit drugs and the number of parents misusing drugs.

Conclusion

PSM and non-compliance appear to be significant factors in delaying stability for the child through the granting of court orders which may involve child removal. There is a need, by child protection professionals, for prompt recognition of PSM and associated compliance/engagement issues in order to refer appropriate cases for further assessment and treatment in specialist drug treatment services. Early involvement with specialist drug treatment services provides the Court with an indication of compliance which is an important factor for making decisions that assist with achieving stability for the child.     

When the levee breaks: treating adolescents and families in the aftermath of hurricane katrina

Hurricane Katrina brought to the surface serious questions about the capacity of the public health system to respond to community-wide disaster. The storm and its aftermath severed developmentally protective family and community ties; thus its consequences are expected to be particularly acute for vulnerable adolescents. Research confirms that teens are at risk for a range of negative outcomes under conditions of life stress and family disorganization. Specifically, the multiple interacting risk factors for substance abuse in adolescence may be compounded when families and communities have experienced a major trauma. Further, existing service structures and treatments for working with young disaster victims may not address their risk for co-occurring substance abuse and traumatic stress reactions because they tend to be individually or peer group focused, and fail to consider the multi-systemic aspects of disaster recovery. This article proposes an innovative family-based intervention for young disaster victims, based on an empirically supported model for adolescent substance abuse, Multidimensional Family Therapy (MDFT; Liddle, 2002). Outcomes and mechanisms of the model's effects are being investigated in a randomized clinical trial with clinically referred substance-abusing teens in a New Orleans area community impacted by Hurricane Katrina.     

Parental substance misuse and child care social work: research in a city social work department in England

This research set out to establish evidence about the scale and impact of and response to parental substance misuse in child care social work teams in a city social services department in England. The article draws on some aspects of the data collected in the research, which includes: a snapshot survey of all child care social work caseloads in the city; group interviews with practitioners and parents in recovery; individual interviews with parents using a pilot project that focused on parental substance misuse. The research provides evidence of parental substance misuse as a key factor that needs greater consideration within child care social work assessments and as an issue to target in developing preventative responses to child welfare concerns. Child care social workers are shown to need specialist support in undertaking this task to best effect. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.