The first reported child abuse and neglect incidence study conducted in Canada was the 1993 Ontario Incidence Study. The first national cycle of the CIS was completed in 1998 and subsequent studies were conducted in 2003, 2008 and 2019. The 2008 cycle also includes a number of province-specific studies in British-Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec, as well as a national First Nations component. In 2013, a province specific study was conducted in Ontario, and in 2014, a province specific study was conducted in Quebec. The most recent cycle, the First Nations/Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (FN/CIS-2019) was completed in 2019 and is a study of child welfare investigations involving First Nations and non-Indigenous children.
Using a standard set of definitions, the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS)-1998, 2003, 2008 and 2019 provide the best available estimates of the incidence and characteristics of reported child maltreatment across Canada over a twenty-year period. Caution should be used in comparing results across cycles as there have been considerable changes to the methodology and survey design weights.
Funding
Core funding for the past three CIS cycles has been provided by the Public Health Agency of Canada’s Injury and Child Maltreatment Division. Additional financial and/or in kind support has been provided by Provincial and Territorial child welfare authorities, Indigenous child welfare organizations, as well as participating universities and research funding organizations. The FN/CIS-2019 is a project of the Assembly of First Nations and a national First Nations Advisory Committee with funding support from the Public Health Agency of Canada.