Trends in Child Abuse Reporting

Sedlak, Andrea J.; Ellis, Raquel

doi:10.1007/978-94-007-7208-3_1

Cited by 14 publications

(15 citation statements)

References 31 publications

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“…community professionals who encounter children and families as a part of their job) or victim recall of childhood experiences (Finkelhor et al, 2009; Hussey et al, 2006; Sedlak et al, 2010). While these methods are preferable to administrative data sources, several limitations remain such as sentinel reporters’ ability to accurately identify children at risk for maltreatment or unreliable self-reporting of early life events (Hardt & Rutter, 2004; Sedlak & Ellis, 2014). It is less common for general population surveys to acquire caregiver self-report of maltreatment behaviors due to concerns about the potential under-reporting of these behaviors likely due to respondent fear of disapproval from the interviewer and/or being reported to child protective services for truthful responding (Cicchetti & Toth, 2005; Tourangeau & Smith, 1996).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Bias in child maltreatment self-reports using interactive voice response (IVR)

Kepple

Freisthler

Johnson‐Motoyama

2014

Child Abuse & Neglect

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Few methods estimate the prevalence of child maltreatment in the general population due to concerns about socially desirable responding and mandated reporting laws. Innovative methods, such as Interactive Voice Response (IVR), may obtain better estimates that address these concerns. This study examined the utility of Interactive Voice Response (IVR) for child maltreatment behaviors by assessing differences between respondents who completed and did not complete a survey using IVR technology. A mixed-mode telephone survey was conducted in English and Spanish in 50 cities in California during 2009. Caregivers (n = 3,023) self-reported abusive and neglectful parenting behaviors for a focal child under the age of 13 using Computer-Assisted Telephone Interviewing and IVR. We used Hierarchical Generalized Linear Models to compare survey completion by caregivers nested within cities for the full sample and age-specific ranges. For demographic characteristics, caregivers born in the United States were more likely to complete the survey when controlling for covariates. Parenting stress, provision of physical needs, and provision of supervisory needs were not associated with survey completion in the full multivariate model. For caregivers of children 0 to 4 years (n = 838), those reporting they could often or always hear their child from another room had a higher likelihood of survey completion. The findings suggest IVR could prove to be useful for future surveys that aim to estimate abusive and/or neglectful parenting behaviors given the limited bias observed for demographic characteristics and problematic parenting behaviors. Further research should expand upon its utility to advance estimation rates.

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confidence: 99%

Bias in child maltreatment self-reports using interactive voice response (IVR)

Kepple

Freisthler

Johnson‐Motoyama

2014

Child Abuse & Neglect

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“…Our study sought to illuminate issues that should be taken into consideration in wrongful conviction cases based on unfounded allegations of child abuse. Because Black children are overrepresented in reports of suspected abuse (Hill, 2007) and three out of four cases reported by the medical community are not deemed worthy of investigation (Sedlak & Ellis, 2014), we investigated whether racial stereotyping by emergency medical professionals could contribute to disproportionality in unwarranted reports. It is now well-accepted that confirmation bias and tunnel vision can cause innocent people to be wrongfully accused and convicted (Findley & Scott, 2006), so we also analyzed these psychological phenomena in diagnostic decision-making.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Of the nearly eight million children investigated for suspected maltreatment in 2018, 11% were referred to CPS by medical professionals (Children's Bureau, 2020). Of importance, although hospitals are the third most common source to identify child maltreatment (Sedlak et al, 2010), only 25% of the cases that hospitals report to CPS are deemed worthy of investigation (Sedlak & Ellis, 2014). This investigation rate is low compared to other sentinel groups (e.g., 94% of cases reported by social services and 64% of cases reported by law enforcement result in investigation), suggesting that the medical community may be more likely than others to suspect child abuse when it has not actually occurred.…”

Section: Race and Medical Misdiagnosis Of Abusementioning

confidence: 99%

Do Racial Stereotypes Contribute to Medical Misdiagnosis of Child Abuse?

Najdowski

Bernstein

Wahrer

2020

wclawr

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Despite growing recognition that misdiagnoses of child abuse can lead to wrongful convictions, little empirical work has examined how the medical community may contribute to these errors. Previous research has documented the existence and content of stereotypes that associate race with child abuse. The current study examines whether emergency medical professionals rely on this stereotype to fill in gaps in ambiguous cases involving Black children, thereby increasing the potential for misdiagnoses of child abuse. Specifically, we tested whether the race-abuse stereotype led participants to attend to more abuse-related details than infection-related details when an infant patient was Black versus White. We also tested whether this heuristic decision-making would be affected by contextual case facts; specifically, we examined whether race bias would be exacerbated or mitigated by a family’s involvement with child protective services (CPS). Results showed that participants did exhibit some biased information processing in response to the experimental manipulations. Even so, the race-abuse stereotype and heuristic decision-making did not cause participants to diagnose a Black infant patient with abuse more often than a White infant patient, regardless of his family’s involvement with CPS. These findings help illuminate how race may lead to different outcomes in cases of potential child abuse, while also demonstrating potential pathways through which racial disparities in misdiagnosis of abuse and subsequent wrongful convictions can be prevented.

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“…In 2013, 73.9% of all maltreatment related fatalities were children under age 3 (U.S. DHHS, 2015). Maltreatment is assumed to be vastly underreported (Sedlak & Ellis, 2014), thus the actual population of maltreated infants and toddlers is likely much larger than what is represented in official statistics. Research samples of SUPPORTING EMOTION REGULATORY NEEDS victimized children are typically comprised of children involved in child welfare (i.e., any level of investigation by child protective services), or children who have been removed from their biological homes and placed in non-parental or foster care.…”

Section: The Scope Of Infant/toddler Maltreatmentmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of child care in supporting the emotion regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers

Mortensen

Barnett

2016

Children and Youth Services Review

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Infants and toddlers who experience physical abuse and/or neglect are at a severe risk for disruptions to emotion regulation. Recent prevention and treatment efforts have highlighted center-based child care as an important setting for providing support to the needs of these children, as child care centers are already an existing point of entry for reaching high-risk families. Guided by ecological theory, this review draws on the maltreatment and child care literatures to consider the opportunity for child care centers, specifically teacher-child interactions within the classroom, to support the unique regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers. Existing research on the effects of child care for children facing other types of risk, as well as research with maltreated preschool children, provides a foundation for considering the role child care may play for infants and toddlers, whose emotion regulation skills are just emerging. More research is needed regarding teachers' roles in facilitating effective emotional experiences in the classroom that meet the unique needs of maltreated children. Additionally, early childhood teacher training that focuses on infant/toddler mental health and a traumainformed perspective of care, as well as structuring child care centers as communities of support for high risk families, all may aid child care centers in better serving this vulnerable population.

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Trends in Child Abuse Reporting

Cited by 14 publications

References 31 publications

Bias in child maltreatment self-reports using interactive voice response (IVR)

Bias in child maltreatment self-reports using interactive voice response (IVR)

Do Racial Stereotypes Contribute to Medical Misdiagnosis of Child Abuse?

The role of child care in supporting the emotion regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers

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