Rural/urban and racial disparities in receipt of family preservation services: An intersectional examination

Family preservation services are essential to prevent foster care entries and enhance child safety and well-being while preserving the family unit.

This study examined disparities across race, ethnicity, and rurality in receipt of family preservation services among children screened into maltreatment investigations in the United States.

This study included 1,819,543 referrals from 1,573,043 unique children who were referred to child protective services and screened into an investigation in 2022.

Data came from the 2022 National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System. Binary logistic regression models were run to examine factors associated with receipt of family preservation services.

After adjusting for controls, non-Hispanic Black children had higher odds of receiving family preservation services than their White peers (AOR = 1.22, 95% CI = 1.19-1.26). Children in large metropolitan areas had lower odds of receiving family preservation services than their peers in smaller metropolitan, suburban, or urban settings. Rurality moderated the relationship between race/ethnicity and receipt of service; Black children and children in other racial/ethnic groups in suburban areas had increased odds of service receipt than their white peers in urban areas, while Hispanic children in suburban areas had decreased odds of service receipt. Hispanic children had lower odds of service receipt in rural areas, while children in other racial groups had higher odds.

Findings from this study highlight the importance of taking an intersectional approach to understand how rurality, race/ethnicity, and other family factors can intertwine and impact receipt of family preservation services. Future research could examine county-level differences and examine other racial/ethnic disparities in intersection with geospatial disparities.