Child Maltreatment最新文献

Multisystemic Therapy for Child Abuse and Neglect (MST-CAN) has been shown to effectively reduce social worker-assessed child neglect and child problems. However, no research has examined the effects of MST-CAN on parenting behaviors or identified which intervention targets are associated with reductions in child problems. This study examined changes in child internalizing and externalizing problems, parental psychological control, neglectful parenting, and social worker-assessed neglect, accounting for therapist effects, and assessed how parenting and neglect predict child outcomes in 143 parent-child dyads in Switzerland (mean child age = 10.5 years, 54.1% boys). Multilevel regression showed significant reductions in social worker-assessed neglect (b = 14.10, SE = 3.49, p < .001) and child problems (b = 4.97, SE = 0.88, p < .001) with low intraclass correlation coefficients (ICC = .049, ICC = .017). Neglectful parenting (b = 0.03, SE = 0.05, p = .640) and psychological control (b = 0.10, SE = 0.07, p = .140) were not significantly reduced. Parenting and social worker assessed neglect did not affect changes in child problems. Findings demonstrate MST-CAN's effectiveness in reducing social worker-assessed neglect and child problems but highlight the need for targeting psychological control and multi-method and multi-informant assessments of parenting behaviors.

In Australia, infants have the highest rate of child protection involvement. Many jurisdictions in Australia and internationally have introduced policies for prenatal planning and support, however little is known about outcomes of infants reported prenatally. This study is the first to use cross-jurisdictional, individual-record data to examine child protection pathways associated with prenatal and infant reports. Australian Institute of Health and Welfare data covering 2012-2018 was used. Cox regression analyses examined factors associated with removal into out-of-home care and reunification. Removals were significantly more likely for children with prenatal reports (HR = 2.29, 95% CI: 2.17-2.41). Earlier-in-pregnancy reports were not associated with reduced removals. There was significant variation across jurisdictions in removals and reunifications. Aboriginal children were significantly more likely to have prenatal reports and removals and less likely to be reunified. Examining the effectiveness and potential improvement of prenatal interventions and support could increase children's opportunity to safely remain at home.

Studies have linked maternal childhood maltreatment to altered infant brain volumes, but none have examined infant hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis function as a mechanism linking the two domains. Further, studies among older children suggest that childhood abuse and neglect may be associated with different developmental outcomes and thus should be studied separately. Study participants were N = 57 mother-infant dyads, stratified for maternal childhood maltreatment. At 4 months, infant cortisol total output (AUCg) and change (AUCi) were assessed across the Still-Face Paradigm. Under natural sleep, infants completed T1-weighted MRI scans (M age = 12.28 months). Whole brain, amygdala, and hippocampal volumes were extracted via automated segmentation. Maternal childhood neglect, but not abuse, was directly associated with higher infant AUCg and AUCi, and was indirectly associated with larger amygdala and hippocampal volumes through infant AUCg. Results suggest that infant cortisol may be particularly influenced by maternal childhood neglect and may be one mechanism further influencing brain development.

Past research has identified a source of miscommunication known as the "pseudotemporal" problem, whereby children mistakenly interpret invitations including the word 'time' (e.g., "tell me about the last time") as requests for temporal information (Friend et al., 2022; McWilliams et al., 2023; Wylie et al., 2024). Miscommunication may be particularly difficult to detect if children respond to the invitations with unelaborated "I don't know" (IDK) responses. The present study examined 352 adult participants' ability to detect the pseudotemporal problem across 12 invitation/response pairs embedded within a mock forensic interview. Results revealed that the most common interpretation of invitations including the word 'time' was that it was a question about "what happened." Additionally, participants rarely identified the pseudotemporal problem, especially in cases where the child's IDK response was unelaborated. Lastly, their ability to detect the pseudotemporal problem was significantly related to their reasoning for why children provided IDK responses.

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are associated with higher rates of prenatal and postpartum depression and child socioemotional problems. This longitudinal study investigated prenatal and postpartum depression as indirect effects linking maternal ACEs to changes in toddler socioemotional problems. Mothers (n = 304) reporting their ACEs, depressive symptoms in pregnancy and 6-months postpartum, and their children's socioemotional problems at 15-, 24-, and 35- months postpartum. Latent growth curve parallel and serial mediation analyses indicated that higher maternal ACEs were significantly associated with greater perinatal depressive symptoms. Depressive symptoms during pregnancy, but not 6-months postpartum, were associated with higher average socioemotional problems at each time point. Maternal ACEs were indirectly associated with average socioemotional problems through prenatal, but not postpartum, depressive symptoms. Indirect effects from maternal ACEs to socioemotional problem trajectories were not significant. Findings suggest that prenatal depressive symptoms should be further explored as a mechanism through which maternal ACEs impact early socioemotional problems.

This study examined the association between select demographic risk factors and family self-report of prior child protective services (CPS) involvement among immigrant families and whether CPS involvement influenced the level of engagement in home visiting services. Administrative data on 4896 immigrant families enrolled in the Parents as Teachers (PAT) home visiting program were analyzed using logistic regression and propensity score weighted multinomial regression models. Substance use (OR = 4.74, p < .001), intimate partner violence (OR = 5.31, p < .001), single (OR = 3.25, p < .001) and teen parenthood (OR = 2.16, p < 01) were significantly associated with immigrant CPS involvement. Families with CPS involvement were more likely to engage in home visiting services for 90 days-1 year compared to over 1 year (RRR: 3.64, p < .01). History of CPS involvement decreased the probability of early dropout (less than 90 days) from home visitation by 27 percentage points. Implications for home visitation practice and research are discussed.

Child welfare caseloads are frequently higher than optimal, leading to provider burnout and turnover. This study aims to identify which case, provider, and organizational factors differentiate providers with higher versus lower burnout and leave intentions. Participants were 26 Family Advocacy Program providers and 17 supervisors at 11 U.S. Department of the Air Force installations who provided data for seven months. We used linear mixed-effects model tree algorithms to determine the factors that distinguish favorable and unfavorable outcomes. The model predicting burnout yielded three significant partitioning variables: (a) number of cases on the high risk for violence and child sexual maltreatment response team lists, (b) command support, and (c) years since licensure. The model predicting leave intentions yielded five significant partitioning variables: (a) client challenge, (b) number of cases, (c) ease of reaching commanders of on-base tenant units, (d) percentage of clients receiving substance abuse treatment services, and (e) command support. This study is a first step toward developing dynamic caseload management tools.

There is a dearth of research examining repeat human trafficking victimization among children involved with the child welfare system (i.e., single system involvement) and children involved with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems (i.e., dual system involvement). This study uses longitudinal statewide linked administrative data from the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to investigate both initial and subsequent verified human trafficking allegations among single and dual system-involved children. We conducted logistic regression models to identify youth characteristics, prior DCF experiences, and prior DJJ experiences that predict initial and subsequent trafficking victimization. We also conducted survival analysis to identify time until human trafficking victimization and revictimization. Prior maltreatment, placement history, missing child events, referral without adjudication, community supervision, and residential facility placement predict initial trafficking victimization. These same indicators predict revictimization, except for prior placement history, residential facility commitment, prior physical abuse and prior sexual abuse. Approximately 1 in 5 child victims experience trafficking revictimization; the median time between initial and subsequent revictimization is about 6 months. This research has implications for policy and practice among system-involved children at greatest risk for human trafficking revictimization.

Research suggests that the dimensions of childhood maltreatment (type, age of onset, duration, frequency and perpetrator) play an important role in determining health and wellbeing outcomes, though little information is available on these dimensions for any care experienced cohorts. This study aimed to determine if any variation in maltreatment dimensions were experienced between two subsets of the nationally representative Australian Child Maltreatment Study, both of which reported childhood maltreatment histories: care-experienced (n = 358) and non-care-experienced (n = 4922). Using a series of independent t-tests and chi-square tests, we compared the two groups on seven dimensions (number of maltreatment types, range of maltreatment items, age of onset, duration, frequency, perpetrator number, and perpetrator type) for the five child maltreatment types (physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence). Results showed that the care-experienced group reported a higher intensity of maltreatment, being younger when maltreatment first started, experiencing greater variety of maltreatment types, for longer periods, more times and by more perpetrators than maltreated people with no care experience. We conclude that children and young people in out-of-home care experience maltreatment at a higher intensity than the rest of the population, which has implications for effective treatment.

Many youth serving organizations (YSOs) implement child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategies. We examined the potential impact of those strategies by retrospectively estimating the prevalence of CSA and boundary violating behaviors experienced in five broad organizational settings: organized sports, religious organizations, music or arts programs, K-12 schools, and the "Big 6 settings" (i.e., 4-H, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the YMCA of the USA). We compared victimization rates between nationally representative cohorts of younger adults (age 18-22; N = 3174) and slightly older adults (age 32-36, N = 3237). Across all participants and settings, 3.75% (n = 363) experienced CSA in YSOs. Among survivors, younger adults reported experiencing a lower proportion of CSA within Big 6 settings than older adults (29.1% vs. 44.5%; p < .05), suggesting that prevention efforts may be having the desired effects in Big 6 settings.