Universal Pre-Kindergarten for Child Maltreatment Prevention

Area of Science:

• Public Health
• Child Development
• Social Policy

Background:

• Child maltreatment has severe, lasting consequences on children's health and well-being.
• Universal Pre-Kindergarten (UPK) programs are expanding nationwide.
• Assessing UPK's potential as a population-level child maltreatment prevention strategy is crucial.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the association between full-time UPK programs and child protective services (CPS) investigation rates.
• To leverage the implementation of New York City's "Pre-K for All" program for this examination.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional study using county-year-child age-level data (2010-2019) from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System Child Files.
• Comparison of CPS investigation rate trajectories for 4- and 8-year-old children before and after UPK implementation.
• Difference-in-differences and event study methods were employed for analysis.

Main Results:

• UPK implementation was linked to a decrease of 4.0 fewer CPS investigations per 1000 children aged 4 years, primarily due to reduced child neglect investigations.
• Event study models indicated a progressive reduction in CPS investigations over time, reaching 8.0 fewer neglect investigations per 1000 children 2 years post-implementation.
• Subgroup analyses revealed that reductions in neglect investigations were disproportionately concentrated among racial and ethnic minority populations, especially non-Hispanic Black children.

Conclusions:

• UPK programs may be associated with decreased CPS involvement, particularly for child neglect.
• UPK initiatives show potential in mitigating racial and ethnic disparities within the CPS system.
• These findings suggest broader public health benefits of UPK, impacting children's well-being and informing policy decisions.