State paid family leave policies and infant maltreatment.

Background: Growing research points to economic policies as protective mechanisms for vulnerable families. Research on pediatric abusive head trauma suggests that paid family leave (PFL) may protect infants in the general population from physical abuse.

Objective: To examine the association of state-level paid family leave policies with infant (ages 0-1) maltreatment rates.

Longitudinal Changes Among Latino/a Immigrant Parental Acculturation and Extra-Familial Immigration-Related Stress.

Foreign-born Latino/a immigrants currently make up 12.9% of the total U.S.

A longitudinal analysis of the spatial spread of police-investigated physical child abuse.

Background: Research has shown that problematic behaviors, such as violence and drug use, may spread through shared physical space and social norms, lending rise to the notion of contagion theories of human behavior.

Objective: This study examines whether physical child abuse spreads across time and space in a pattern reflective of a contagion model.

Participants And Setting: This study uses 15 years of data from a large U.

Using Bayesian analysis to examine associations between spanking and child externalizing behavior across race and ethnic groups.

While corporal punishment is widely understood to have undesirable associations with children's behavior problems, there remains controversy as to whether such effects are consistent across different racial or ethnic groups. We employed a Bayesian regression analysis, which allows for the estimation of both similarities and differences across groups, to study whether there are differences in the relationship of corporal punishment and children's behavior problems using a diverse, urban sample of U.S.

Neighborhood collective efficacy, parental spanking, and subsequent risk of household child protective services involvement.

Children exposed to negative neighborhood conditions and parental spanking are at higher risk of experiencing maltreatment. We conducted prospective analyses of secondary data to determine the effects of neighborhood collective efficacy and parental spanking on household Child Protective Services (CPS) involvement, and whether spanking mediates the relationship between neighborhood collective efficacy and CPS involvement. The sample (N = 2,267) was drawn from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a stratified random sample of 4,789 births between 1998-2000 in 20 large U.

The benefits of early care and education for child welfare-involved children: Perspectives from the field.

Increasing access to early care and education (ECE) for children in the child welfare system (CWS) remains a critical issue in the United States, as the numbers of young children entering this system steadily increases. Mounting evidence suggests that participation in at least some types of ECE can mitigate the need for child welfare supervision. Moreover, ECE participation has been linked to positive developmental and school readiness outcomes, lower rates of foster placement, and greater placement stability for children in the CWS.

Parenting and proximity to social services: Lessons from Los Angeles County in the community context of child neglect.

Using a sample of 438 parents in Los Angeles County, CA, this study examines the role of proximity to social services in child neglect. In an extension of social disorganization theory, it seeks to understand the potential sources of support in neighborhoods for families. It uses ordinary least squares regression to examine driving distance from parents' residences to four types of services (child care, domestic violence, mental health/substance abuse, and poverty).

Do early care and education services improve language development for maltreated children? Evidence from a national child welfare sample.

Young children under 6 years old are over-represented in the U.S. child welfare system (CWS).

Child center closures: Does nonprofit status provide a comparative advantage?

Reliable access to dependable, high quality childcare services is a vital concern for large numbers of American families. The childcare industry consists of private nonprofit, private for-profit, and governmental providers that differ along many dimensions, including quality, clientele served, and organizational stability. Nonprofit providers are theorized to provide higher quality services given comparative tax advantages, higher levels of consumer trust, and management by mission driven entrepreneurs.

The availability of neighborhood early care and education resources and the maltreatment of young children.

Using Census and administrative data for 2052 Census tracts in a large urban county, this study explores the relationship between several indicators of social organization and neighborhood rates of child maltreatment for 0- to 5-year-olds. Spatial regression models demonstrate that neighborhoods with a higher percentage of 3- and 4-year-olds attending preschool or nursery school, both locally and in adjacent neighborhoods, had lower rates of early maltreatment referrals and substantiations. Neighborhoods with more licensed child care spaces relative to child care need, as defined by the number of 0- to 5-year-old in the neighborhood with working parents, had lower rates of early child maltreatment referrals.