Predicting chronic neglect: Understanding risk and protective factors for CPS‐involved families

Abstract

Child neglect continues to receive less attention in research literature compared to other forms of maltreatment, despite accumulating evidence of serious negative impacts on child well‐being. Chronic neglect is also poorly understood. Although such cases comprise a relatively small percentage of workers' caseloads, they represent accumulation of harm that impacts the cognitive and social development of children. These cases can also disproportionately utilize protective service resources. This study contributes to the literature by examining risk and protective factors of chronic neglect. We utilized administrative data (N = 2,074) from a midsize city in the Northeast to examine the use of existing risk assessment tools to distinguish families with and without chronic neglect, including an analysis of the predictive capacity of risk and protective factors. We found that families with chronic neglect were younger, had more children, were more likely to have children under age one, and had higher rates of domestic violence, mental health problems, and cognitive impairment. None of the assessed protective factors differed significantly. The overall predictive value of the assessment was low. Implications include the need to expand risk assessment tools to incorporate patterns over time and identify early indicators specific to chronic neglect.

School-based interventions for preventing substance use in indigenous children ages 7–13: a scoping review protocol

“…School-based prevention programmes can target large numbers of preadolescents in a relatively cost-effective and efficient manner 54. Randomised control trials have been central to legitimising school-based substance use prevention programmes 55 56. Reviews of these trials have found that evidence-based programming in schools is effective in preventing the early onset of substance use and the escalation of substance use in adolescence 57–59…”

Factors influencing resubstantiation of child neglect in South Korea: A comparison with other maltreatment cases

“…This is also true for studies on the recurrence of child neglect. Only a small number of studies have focused on investigating the etiology and consequences of repeated incidents of CPS involvement for child neglect cases (Jonson‐Reid, Emery, Drake, & Stahlschmidt, ; Kang, Bae, & Fuller, ; Logan‐Greene & Semanchin Jones, ). The majority of studies have pooled all maltreatment cases to investigate the recurrence of child maltreatment (Connell, Bergeron, Katz, Saunders, & Tebes, ; Fluke, Shusterman, Hollinshead, & Yuan, ; Jang, Kim, & Kim, ; Kim, ; Yoo et al, ).…”

“…A growing number of studies have investigated risk and protective factors associated with the occurrence of child neglect (Mulder, Kuiper, van der Put, Stams, & Assink, 2018;Stith et al, 2009). Some of the risk factors that have been found to be associated with child neglect include parent's mental or physical health problems, substance use, and parenting stress (Logan-Greene & Semanchin Jones, 2018;Mulder et al, 2018;Semanchin Jones & Logan-Greene, 2016;Slack et al, 2011;Stith et al, 2009). Family characteristics, such as exposure to family violence, low family socioeconomic status (SES), and single parenthood, are also associated with child neglect (Mulder et al, 2018;Stith et al, 2009).…”

“…Specifically, a strong relationship between family poverty (or low SES) and child neglect has been well established (Loman, 2006;Sedlak et al, 2010;Slack et al, 2011;Yang & Maguire-Jack, 2016). In addition, exposure to domestic violence has been repeatedly reported as one of the key risk factors associated with the chronicity of child maltreatment, particularly child neglect (Jonson-Reid, Emery et al, 2010;Logan-Greene & Semanchin Jones, 2018). However, some inconsistencies exist in findings on the link between child characteristics and neglect.…”

“…In their meta-analytic studies, Stith et al (2009) andMulder et al (2018) did not find any significant association between child characteristics and neglect. However, some studies have documented the increased vulnerability of younger children and children with behavior problems in child neglect cases (Logan-Greene & Semanchin Jones, 2018;Semanchin Jones & Logan-Greene, 2016).…”