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Child Protective Service Disparities and Serious Mental Illnesses: Results From a National Survey
Katy Kaplan1, Eugene Brusilovskiy1, Amber M O'Shea1
1Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences, Temple University, Philadelphia.
Insights
Parents with serious mental illness (SMI) face significantly higher rates of child protective services (CPS) involvement. This includes increased risk of custody loss, highlighting disparities in child welfare services.
Area of Science:
- Mental Health Services Research
- Child Welfare Studies
- Public Health
Background:
- Child protective services (CPS) involvement can negatively impact families.
- Understanding disparities in CPS involvement for parents with serious mental illness (SMI) is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To provide updated prevalence of parenting among individuals with SMI.
- To establish national prevalence estimates of CPS involvement for parents with and without SMI.
Main Methods:
- Utilized data from the Truven Health Analytics PULSE national survey (n=42,761).
- Assessed serious mental illness, parenting status, and CPS involvement between September 2014 and December 2015.
Main Results:
- Parenthood prevalence was similar for individuals with (69%) and without (71%) SMI.
- Parents with SMI were 8x more likely to have CPS contact and 26x more likely to experience living arrangement changes.
- Parents with SMI faced higher custody loss risk even after CPS contact.
Conclusions:
- Highlights the need to address parenting in individuals with SMI.
- Emphasizes understanding factors linked to CPS involvement to reduce disparities.
- Reducing CPS involvement can improve parental mental health and recovery.
Objective:
Involvement with child protective services (CPS) can have detrimental effects on children and parents alike. This study provided updated information about the prevalence of parenting among individuals with a serious mental illness and established the first contemporaneous and comparative national prevalence estimates of CPS involvement for parents with and without a serious mental illness.
Methods:
Data came from the Truven Health Analytics PULSE national survey of 42,761 adults conducted between September 2014 and December 2015. Survey questions assessed the presence of a serious mental illness, parenting status, contact with CPS, and types of CPS involvement.
Results:
Prevalence of parenthood was similar between individuals with (69%) and without (71%) a serious mental illness. Parents with a serious mental illness were approximately eight times more likely to have CPS contact and 26 times more likely to have a change in living arrangements compared with parents without a serious mental illness. Even when the analysis was limited to parents who had CPS contact, parents with a serious mental illness were at greater risk of custody loss compared with parents without mental illness.
Conclusions:
These results further heighten the need to attend to parenting among individuals with a serious mental illness and better understand the factors associated with CPS involvement to reduce the identified disparities between parents with and without a mental illness. Efforts to reduce CPS involvement would likely reduce stress and enhance recovery and mental health for parents and their children.
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