Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder: What does Public Awareness Tell Us about Prevention Programming?

The prevalence of Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD) does not appear to be diminishing over time. Indeed, recent data suggests that the disorder may be more prevalent than previously thought. A variety of public education programs developed over the last 20 years have promoted alcohol abstention during pregnancy, yet FASD remains a serious public health concern.

A scoping review of evidence-based interventions available to parents of maltreated children ages 0-5 involved with child welfare services.

Parents referred to child welfare services for child maltreatment often struggle against chronic risk factors including violence, substance abuse, mental health concerns, and poverty, which impinge upon their ability to be sensitive caregivers. The first line of intervention within the child welfare context is to modify parenting behavior. This scoping review comprehensively surveyed all available literature to map the extent and range of research activity around the types of interventions available within a child welfare context to parents of infants and toddlers (0-5 years of age), to identify the facilitators and/or barriers to the uptake of interventions, and to check that interventions match the risk factors faced by parents.

Exploring alternate specifications to explain agency-level effects in placement decisions regarding Aboriginal children: Further analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect Part C.

A series of papers using data from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) explored the influence of clinical and organizational characteristics on the decision to place Aboriginal children in out-of-home placements at the conclusion of child maltreatment investigations. The purpose of this paper is to further explore a consistent finding of the previous analyses: the proportion of investigations involving Aboriginal children at a child welfare agency is associated with placement for all children in that agency. CIS-2008 data were used in the analysis, which allowed for inclusion of previously unavailable organizational and contextual variables.

Differentiating between child protection and family support in the Canadian child welfare system's response to intimate partner violence, corporal punishment, and child neglect.

Rates of reported child maltreatment nearly doubled in Canada over the period 1998-2003, an increase that reflects growing awareness of the harmful effects of an expanding array of parental behaviors, including corporal punishment, lack of supervision, and exposure to intimate partner violence (IPV). Some of these situations may benefit from voluntary family support programs outside of the child welfare system. Analyzing a sample of 11,807 investigations, this paper compares cases where the sole concern is exposure to IPV, or hitting a child, or neglect, or other forms of investigated maltreatment.

Understanding the investigation-stage overrepresentation of First Nations children in the child welfare system: an analysis of the First Nations component of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect 2008.

Objectives: The overrepresentation of Aboriginal children in child welfare systems in the U.S., Canada, and Australia is well documented, but limited attention has been paid to investigation-stage disproportionality.

Exploring alternate specifications to explain agency-level effects in placement decisions regarding aboriginal children: further analysis of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect Part B.

Objective: This paper builds upon the analyses presented in two companion papers (Fluke et al., 2010; Fallon et al., 2013) using data from the 1998 and 2003 cycles of the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-1998 and CIS-2003) to examine the influence of clinical and organizational characteristics on the decision to place a child in out-of-home care at the conclusion of a child maltreatment investigation.

Placement decisions and disparities among Aboriginal children: further analysis of the Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect part A: comparisons of the 1998 and 2003 surveys.

Objective: Fluke et al. (2010) analyzed Canadian Incidence Study on Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS) data collected in 1998 to explore the influence of clinical and organizational characteristics on the decision to place Aboriginal children in an out-of-home placement at the conclusion of a child maltreatment investigation. This study explores this same question using CIS data collected in 2003 which included a larger sample of Aboriginal children and First Nations child and family service agencies.

Shifting definitions of emotional maltreatment: an analysis child welfare investigation laws and practices in Canada.

Objective: Although there is growing evidence that the emotional dimensions of child maltreatment are particularly damaging, the feasibility and appropriateness of including emotional maltreatment (EM) in child welfare statutes continues to be questioned. Unlike physical and sexual abuse where investigations focus on discreet incidents of maltreatment, EM is not as easily defined and delimited. Through a review of legislation and child welfare investigation practices in Canada, this paper examines (1) whether Canadian child welfare services respond to EM with the same level of perseverance as with other forms of maltreatment and (2) the extent to which the introduction in 2008 of a more specific EM taxonomy distinguishes between EM and family problems that could lead to EM.

Should child protection services respond differently to maltreatment, risk of maltreatment, and risk of harm?

Objective: To examine evidence available in large-scale North American datasets on child abuse and neglect that can assist in understanding the complexities of child protection case classifications.

Methods: A review of child abuse and neglect data from large North American epidemiological studies including the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS), the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS), and the National Incidence Studies of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS).

Results: The authors of this paper argue that recent evidence from large North American epidemiological studies examining the incidence of child abuse and neglect demonstrate that children and families identified as being at risk of maltreatment present with as many household and caregiver concerns as investigations that are substantiated.

Placement decisions and disparities among aboriginal groups: an application of the decision making ecology through multi-level analysis.

Objective: This paper examined the relative influence of clinical and organizational characteristics on the decision to place a child in out-of-home care at the conclusion of a child maltreatment investigation. It tested the hypothesis that extraneous factors, specifically, organizational characteristics, impact the decision to place a child in out-of-home care. A secondary aim was to identify possible decision making influences related to disparities in placement decisions tied to Aboriginal children.

Methodological challenges in measuring child maltreatment.

Objective: This article reviewed the different surveillance systems used to monitor the extent of reported child maltreatment in North America.

Methods: Key measurement and definitional differences between the surveillance systems are detailed and their potential impact on the measurement of the rate of victimization. The infrastructure requirements, quality of information, timely access to data and the usefulness for child welfare policy are compared and contrasted and a summary table of the type of information by each system is presented.

Level of street involvement and health and health services use of Calgary street youth.

Objectives: To examine differences in health risks, health outcomes and health services use of Calgary street-involved youth by level of street involvement to inform services planning.

Method: 355 street-involved youth (61% male, 26% Aboriginal) completed surveys at a variety of outdoor and agency locations: 46% currently lived on the street, 33% had lived on the street in the past, and 20% were street-involved but had not lived on the street. Odds Ratios (OR) adjusted for sex, ethnocultural group, and age group were calculated for each health/health risk and health service factor by level of street involvement.

Differentiating between substantiated, suspected, and unsubstantiated maltreatment in Canada.

The decision to substantiate is a key factor in determining eligibility for services and decisions to press criminal charges or to remove a child, and it is frequently the basis for selecting samples of maltreated children or to measure recidivism or intervention effectiveness. Although there is a growing body of research on case substantiation in the United States, few studies have examined this decision in other jurisdictions. Using data from the 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, this study examines the profiles of a national sample of 10,010 investigations.

The Canadian child welfare system response to exposure to domestic violence investigations.

Objective: While child welfare policy and legislation reflects that children who are exposed to domestic violence are in need of protection because they are at risk of emotional and physical harm, little is known about the profile of families and children identified to the child welfare system and the system's response. The objective of this study was to examine the child welfare system's response to child maltreatment investigations substantiated for exposure to domestic violence (EDV).

Methods: This study is based on a secondary analysis of data collected in the 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2003).

What is driving increasing child welfare caseloads in Ontario? Analysis of the 1993 and 1998 Ontario incidence studies.

Rates of substantiated maltreatment documented by the 1993 and 1998 Ontario Incidence Studies of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect doubled between 1993 and 1998. Although increasing public awareness and changes in investigation procedures appear to account for part of this change, the increase also reflects a significant shift in the types of maltreatment agencies are investigating and substantiating. Exposure to spousal violence has increased eightfold, and the proportion of neglect cases has more than doubled, whereas cases of sexual abuse are decreasing.

Major findings from the Canadian incidence study of reported child abuse and neglect.

Objective: To present key findings from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Maltreatment (CIS) in sufficient detail to provide a basis for international comparisons in terms of forms and severity of maltreatment and the age and sex of victims.

Method: A survey conducted in a random sample of 51 child welfare service areas across Canada tracked child maltreatment investigations conducted during the months of October to December 1998, produced a national sample of 7672 child maltreatment investigations. Information was collected directly from investigating workers on child and family background, perpetrator characteristics, severity and types of maltreatment and service and court outcomes of investigations.