Socioeconomic risk and the longitudinal child lifetime prevalence of child protection involvement.

Background: North American studies find that geographic indicators of disadvantage, such as concentrated poverty, significantly increase the risk of child protection involvement. Despite having one of the most extensive family support systems and progressive income redistribution policies in North America, the Canadian province of Québec still faces geographic variations in socioeconomic conditions that remain a major risk factor for child protection involvement.

Objective: This study asks how child protection involvement is distributed across socioeconomically distinct geographic areas of the province.

Childhood Prevalence of Involvement with the Child Protection System in Quebec: A Longitudinal Study.

The goal of this study, the first of its kind in Canada, was to estimate the child lifetime prevalence of child protection involvement in Quebec. Using administrative and population data spanning 17 years, we performed a survival analysis of initial incidents of child protection reports, confirmed reports, confirmation of a child's security or development being compromised, and placement outside the home for one day or more. We found that before reaching the age of 18 years, over 18% of children were reported to child protection at least once, one in every ten children (10.

Reunification trajectories in Quebec: Acknowledging chronic family challenges to support stability.

Background: While family reunification following out-of-home placement is a goal of child protection policy, complex family needs may not be met at the point that child protection systems reunify families. Permanency legislation creating maximum placement timeframes prompts questions regarding what families need to be supported in stably reunifying following a child's removal from the home.

Objective: We aim to identify clinical risk factors salient for initial placements and placements following a child reunifying with their family to inform successful reunification and improve children's stability.

Recurrent involvement with the Quebec child protection system for reasons of neglect: A longitudinal clinical population study.

Unlabelled: Studies in several jurisdictions have found that families become recurrently involved with child protection systems most frequently for reasons of neglect. Child protection involvement for reasons of neglect is shown to correlate with various socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Objective: This study, the largest of its kind in Canada, examines when and for whom recurring conditions of neglect were most likely to occur for all children involved with child protection in the province of Quebec over a span of fifteen years.

Differences and disparities over time: Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system.

Background: Black-White disparities in child welfare involvement have been well-documented in the United States, but there is a significant knowledge gap in Ontario about how and when these disparities emerge.

Objective: This paper compares incidence data on Black and White families investigated by Ontario's child welfare system over a 20-year period.

Methods: Data from the first five cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS) (1993-2013) were used to examine trends in child maltreatment investigations involving Black and White families.

An examination of trends in child sexual abuse investigations in Ontario over time.

Background: Child sexual abuse (CSA) rates have been declining since the 1990s (Dunne et al., 2003; Finkelhor & Jones, 2004, 2012; Jones et al., 2001).

Contrasting mental health correlates of physical and sexual abuse-related shame.

Objective: This study represents an initial attempt to contrast behavioural and mental health correlates of shame as a result of physical abuse (PA) and sexual abuse (SA). Because they are distinctive forms of injury, it is possible that corollary shame from these injuries follows unique trajectories and ultimately results in different health challenges.

Method: Self-report data from a survey on the health of youth receiving protective services for reasons of PA and SA was used.

Child Maltreatment Among Children With Intellectual Disability in the Canadian Incidence Study.

This study aims to compare, among a representative sample of substantiated child maltreatment cases, the characteristics of those with intellectual disability (ID) from those without ID. Using the 2008 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect, 5,797 cases of substantiated maltreatment that involved children aged between 0 and 14 years were analyzed. One in 10 children (11.

The Effects of Socioeconomic Vulnerability, Psychosocial Services, and Social Service Spending on Family Reunification: A Multilevel Longitudinal Analysis.

Socio-environmental factors such as poverty, psychosocial services, and social services spending all could influence the challenges faced by vulnerable families. This paper examines the extent to which socioeconomic vulnerability, psychosocial service consultations, and preventative social services spending impacts the reunification for children placed in out-of-home care. This study uses a multilevel longitudinal research design that draws data from three sources: (1) longitudinal administrative data from Quebec's child protection agencies; (2) 2006 and 2011 Canadian Census data; and, (3) intra-province health and social services data.

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.

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.

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.

What predicts injury from physical punishment? A test of the typologies of violence hypothesis.

Objective: This study examined the power of child, perpetrator, and socio-economic characteristics to predict injury in cases of reported child physical abuse. The study was designed to assess the validity of the assumption that physically injurious incidents of child physical abuse are qualitatively different from those that do not result in injury, that their generative factors are distinctive, and that the quality of caregiving in these two types of incidents is different.

Method: A weighted, nationally representative sample of 8,164 substantiated punishment abuse cases in Canada was used.