Putnam-Hornstein, E., Needell, B., King, B., & Johnson-Motoyama, M. (2013). Racial and ethnic disparities: A population-based examination of risk factors for involvement with child protective services. Child Abuse & Neglect, 37(1), 33.
Racial and ethnic disparities in child protective service involvement are well documented in the United States. This study used population-based data to examine whether racial and ethnic differences in maltreatment referrals, substantiation, and entry into foster care could be explained by variations in the distribution of individual and family-level risk and protective factors.
Vital birth records for children born in California in 2002 were linked to longitudinal child protective service records to identify children who were referred for allegations of maltreatment by age five. Using the maternal race identified in vital birth records, the study assessed differences in the child protective service involvement and the distribution of risk and protective factors for Black, U.S. born Latino, foreign-born Latino, and White mothers. These families were further stratified by whether or not the birth was covered by public health insurance, which was considered a proxy for low socioeconomic status given the income requirements to qualify. These groups were compared descriptively across risk and protective factors (e.g., timing of prenatal care, maternal age at birth, maternal education, whether or not paternity was established, and the number of children born to the mother), and generalized linear models were specified to assess differences in the risk (unadjusted and adjusted) of referral, substantiation, and entry into foster across race, ethnicity, and maternal nativity.
Among the 531,035 children born in California in 2002, there were substantial and significant racial and ethnic differences in rates of child protective service involvement and the distribution of risk and protective factors. In the aggregate, racial/ethnic disparities followed the expected pattern given previous research. Black children and children of U.S. born Latino mothers were more likely and children of foreign-born Latino mothers were less likely to be referred, substantiated, and enter foster care than White children. Among those covered by public health insurance (43% of the full birth cohort), differences in demographic and health-related factors associated with maltreatment were less pronounced. After adjusting for those factors, poor Black and Latino (regardless of nativity) children were less likely to be referred, substantiated, and enter foster care than White children.
The main strength of this study is that it is both population based and longitudinal, which offers statistical power and generalizability. Acknowledged limitations are: the examination of only California-born children (versus other states); and that the data set may be skewed by inclusion of children who were born in California, but reside in Mexico (mothers are migrant workers). In addition to the acknowledged limitations, the study’s generalizability may also be limited by a cohort effect, since the children are all from the same birth year.
The article alludes to, but does not directly situate risk factors as macro/ structurally based, but rather places socio-economic disadvantage at the family and individual levels. The authors do however acknowledge that there are complex social processes at play when assessing socioeconomic status as a risk factor for child maltreatment.