Prenatal Substance Exposure and Multilevel Predictors of Child Protection System Reporting

To describe child protection system (CPS) reports after delivery and examine associations between individual- and hospital-level predictors and CPS reporting in a cohort of infants with prenatal substance exposure.

This state-level, retrospective cohort study used administrative data to analyze births to Black, White, and US-born Hispanic mothers with documented prenatal substance exposure. We used a random intercept mixed-model with individual- and hospital-level predictors to capture any association between birth hospital and CPS reporting. Interaction terms allowed for different effects dependent on characteristics of the delivering parent and the dominant demographics of the hospital setting.

Among 260 525 births during 2018 in California, 2.6% had documented substance exposure, with observed racial differences in substance use and type. Nearly 4% of births to Black mothers had documented cannabis exposure compared with roughly 1% among White and Hispanic mothers. The delivery hospital explained 24% of variance in CPS reporting. Hierarchical models revealed race and insurance-type differences in the likelihood a CPS report followed a substance exposed birth. Namely, publicly-insured births in hospitals where majority births were covered by private insurance had nearly twice the probability of being reported compared with those with private insurance.

We found variation in CPS reporting of births with diagnosed substance exposure at the hospital level, and interactions between hospital- and individual-level characteristics in their association with the likelihood of CPS reporting. Associations offer insight into potential areas of bias and inconsistency in policy implementation that might be diminished through improved decision-making tools and provider training.