Opportunities for prevention and intervention with young children: lessons from the Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect

Fallon Barbara, Ma Jennifer, Allan Kate, Pillhofer Melanie, Trocmé Nico, Jud, Jud Andreas

Description

The most effective way to provide support to caregivers with infants in order to promote good health, social, emotional and developmental outcomes is the subject of numerous debates in the literature. In Canada, each province adopts a different approach which range from universal to targeted programs. Nonetheless, each year a group of vulnerable infants is identified to the child welfare system with concerns about their well-being and safety. This study examines maltreatment-related investigations in Canada involving children under the age of one year to identify which factors determine service provision at the conclusion of the investigation. Methods A secondary analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect CIS-2008 (PHAC, 2010) dataset was conducted. Multivariate analyses were conducted to understand the profile of investigations involving infants (n=1,203) and which predictors were significant in the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services at the conclusion of the investigation. Logistic Regression and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were conducted to examine the relationship between the outcome and predictors. Results The results suggest that there are three main sources that refer infants to the Canadian child welfare system: hospital, police, and non-professionals. Infant maltreatment-related investigations involve young caregivers who struggle with poverty, single-parenthood, drug/solvent and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, lack of social supports, and intimate partner violence. Across the three referral sources, primary caregiver risk factors are the strongest predictor of the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services. Conclusions Multivariate analyses indicate that the presence of infant concerns does not predict ongoing service provision, except when the infant is identified with positive toxicology at birth. The opportunity for early intervention and the need to tailor interventions for specific caregiver risk factors is discussed.

Sujets

• Child protection
• Child abuse
• Decision making

Informations

• Publié par: biomed
• Publié le: 01 janvier 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 8
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Fallonet al. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health2013,7:4 http://www.capmh.com/content/7/1/4

R E S E A R C HOpen Access Opportunities for prevention and intervention with young children: lessons from the Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect 1* 11 23 3 Barbara Fallon, Jennifer Ma , Kate Allan , Melanie Pillhofer , Nico Trocméand Andreas Jud

Abstract Background:The most effective way to provide support to caregivers with infants in order to promote good health, social, emotional and developmental outcomes is the subject of numerous debates in the literature. In Canada, each province adopts a different approach which range from universal to targeted programs. Nonetheless, each year a group of vulnerable infants is identified to the child welfare system with concerns about their well being and safety. This study examines maltreatmentrelated investigations in Canada involving children under the age of one year to identify which factors determine service provision at the conclusion of the investigation. Methods:A secondary analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and NeglectCIS2008 (PHAC, 2010) dataset was conducted. Multivariate analyses were conducted to understand the profile of investigations involving infants (n=1,203) and which predictors were significant in the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services at the conclusion of the investigation. Logistic Regression and Classification and Regression Trees (CART) were conducted to examine the relationship between the outcome and predictors. Results:The results suggest that there are three main sources that refer infants to the Canadian child welfare system: hospital, police, and nonprofessionals. Infant maltreatmentrelated investigations involve young caregivers who struggle with poverty, singleparenthood, drug/solvent and alcohol abuse, mental health issues, lack of social supports, and intimate partner violence. Across the three referral sources, primary caregiver risk factors are the strongest predictor of the decision to transfer a case to ongoing services. Conclusions:Multivariate analyses indicate that the presence of infant concerns does not predict ongoing service provision, except when the infant is identified with positive toxicology at birth. The opportunity for early intervention and the need to tailor interventions for specific caregiver risk factors is discussed. Keywords:Child welfare, Child maltreatment, Infants, Young parents, Referral source, Decisionmaking, Ongoing services

Introduction and Background The most effective way to provide support to caregivers with infants in order to promote good health, social, emotional and developmental outcomes is the subject of numerous debates in the empirical literature. Each province/territory in Canada adopts a different ap proach which range from universal to targeted programs.

* Correspondence: [e-mail] 1 FactorInwentash Faculty of Social Work, University of Toronto, 246 Bloor Street W, Toronto, Ontario M5S 1V4, Canada Full list of author information is available at the end of the article

Nonetheless, each year a group of vulnerable infants is identified to the Canadian child welfare system with concerns about their wellbeing and safety. In Canada, both nonprofessionals and professionals who have concerns about child maltreatment can make a referral to a child welfare agency. The child welfare agency determines whether or not an initial investigation will occur after they receive the referral. If there is an ini tial investigation, child welfare workers typically determine whether or not maltreatment has occurred, and whether or not the family will receive voluntary or nonvoluntary

© 2013 Fallon et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.