Letter to the editor: Sample selection bias and racial differences in child abuse reporting: once again (original) (raw)
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Official statistics have confirmed that relative to their presence in the population and relative to white children, black children have consistently higher rates of contact with child protective services (CPS). We used linked administrative data and statistical decomposition techniques to generate new insights into black and white differences in child maltreatment reports and foster care placements. Methods Birth records for all children born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, between 2008 and 2010 were linked to administrative service records originating in multiple county data systems. Differences in rates of involvement with child protective services between black and white children by age 4 were decomposed using nonlinear regression techniques. Results Black children had rates of CPS involvement that were 3 times higher than white children. Racial differences were explained solely by parental marital status (i.e., being unmarried) and age at birth (i.e., predominantly teenage mothers). Adding other covariates did not capture any further racial differences in maltreatment reporting or foster care placement rates, they simply shifted differences already explained by marital status and age to these other variables. Discussion Racial differences in rates of maltreatment reports and foster care placements can be explained by a basic model that adjusts only for parental marital status and age at the time of birth. Increasing access to early prevention services for vulnerable families may reduce disparities in child protective service involvement. Using birth records linked to other administrative data sources provides an important means to developing population-based research.
Child Abuse & Neglect, 2020
Background: Considerable debate exists on whether the substantiation decision is a reliable measure for rates of maltreatment. Studies have shown that risks among children victims of maltreatment versus children investigated but unsubstantiated are similar. Objective: This paper aims to respond to two research questions: (1) Do most child maltreatment referrals, substantiated and unsubstantiated, come from the same neighborhoods? (2) Do substantiated and unsubstantiated referrals share the same neighborhood risk factors? Participants and settings: We used geocoded data from substantiated (n = 1799) and unsubstantiated (n = 1638) child maltreatment referrals in Valencia, Spain (2004–2015). As the neighborhood proxy, we used 552 Census block groups. Neighborhood characteristics analyzed were: socioeconomic status, immigration concentration, residential instability, and public disorder and crime. Methods: To study the geographical overlap of child maltreatment referrals, a Bayesian joint modeling approach was used. To analyze the influence of neighborhood-level characteristics on risk, we used a Bayesian random-effects modeling approach. Results: For substantiated child maltreatment referrals, 90 % of the total between-area variation in risk is captured by the shared component, while for unsubstantiated child maltreatment referrals, the shared component was 88 %. The correlation between substantiated and unsubstantiated risks of child maltreatment referrals was .80. These risks were higher in neighborhoods with low levels of socioeconomic status, higher immigrant concentration, public disorder and crime. Conclusions: Child maltreatment referrals, regardless of whether substantiated or unsubstantiated, overlap in the same disadvantaged neighborhoods. This suggests that in these neighborhoods, families are at a higher risk of being investigated by child protective services suggesting a potential reporting bias.