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Involvement with child protective services: is this a useful question in population-based surveys?

Hayley A Hamilton1, Angela Boak, Robert E Mann

  • 1Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S1, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Child Abuse & Neglect
|July 11, 2013
PubMed

Insights

Investigating child maltreatment in surveys is challenging. Asking about involvement with child protective services (CPS) may serve as a viable proxy for identifying adverse childhood experiences and their health impacts.

Area of Science:

  • Public Health
  • Child Psychology
  • Sociology

Background:

  • Direct questioning on child maltreatment in population surveys faces ethical and methodological barriers.
  • This limitation hinders research on early adversity and its links to health and behavior.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the utility of using child protective services (CPS) involvement as a proxy measure for child maltreatment in population-based research.
  • To assess the consistency of CPS involvement data with established relationships between maltreatment and adverse outcomes.

Main Methods:

  • A school-based adolescent survey was conducted.
  • The survey included a question assessing child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS).
  • Results were compared with existing literature on child maltreatment and health/behavioral outcomes.

Main Results:

  • Findings indicated that CPS involvement was generally consistent with known associations between child maltreatment and outcomes like psychological distress, delinquency, bullying, and health service use.
  • Despite lacking specifics on maltreatment type or reason for involvement, CPS involvement reflected shared familial experiences of adversity.

Conclusions:

  • Questions regarding child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS) may serve as a reasonable proxy for child maltreatment in population-based surveys.
  • CPS involvement data can be a valuable tool for researchers studying early adverse experiences and their long-term consequences.

Keywords:
Child maltreatmentChild protective servicesChild welfare involvementPopulation-based survey

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