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Investigating health disparities and disproportionality in child maltreatment reporting: 2002-2006

Natalie A Cort1, Catherine Cerulli, Hua He

  • 1Department of Psychiatry, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York 14642, USA. Natalie Cort@urmc.rochester.edu

Journal of Public Health Management and Practice : JPHMP
|June 4, 2010
PubMed

Insights

Medical personnel disproportionately reported African American, Hispanic, and low-income pediatric patients to child protective services (CPS). This highlights significant racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disparities in CPS reporting practices.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Health Disparities Research
  • Social Welfare

Background:

  • Child protective services (CPS) reporting by medical personnel can reflect systemic biases.
  • Understanding disparities in CPS reporting is crucial for equitable healthcare.
  • Limited research exists on racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disproportionality in medical personnel's CPS reporting.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To examine health disparities and disproportionality in child protective services (CPS) reporting among pediatric patients.
  • To investigate racial/ethnic and socioeconomic factors influencing CPS reporting by medical personnel.

Main Methods:

  • Analysis of archived CPS reports for pediatric patients (N = 1,020) from 2002 to 2006.
  • Computation of disproportionate representation and disparity indices.
  • Examination of socioeconomic factors related to neighborhood prosperity.

Main Results:

  • African American and Hispanic pediatric patients were reported to CPS at higher rates than their population representation and significantly more than White patients.
  • White pediatric patients were reported to CPS at lower rates than their general patient population representation.
  • Pediatric patients from low-income neighborhoods were reported to CPS at higher rates than their population numbers and five times more often than those from affluent neighborhoods.

Conclusions:

  • Significant racial/ethnic and socioeconomic disproportionality and disparities exist in medical personnel's CPS reporting.
  • Findings underscore the need for healthcare systems to collect and analyze patient racial/ethnic data to address disparities.
  • Further empirical research is necessary to identify causal factors driving these reporting differences.
Abstract

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