Associations Between the Social Determinants of Health and Risk of Interpersonal Violence Among Black Americans in Rural Alabama.

Prior research has linked the social determinants of health, such as food insecurity and housing instability, to experiences of interpersonal violence. However, little is known about how the social determinants of health are related to the risk for interpersonal violence among Black Americans living in rural, high-poverty communities in the Deep South. The intersection of rurality, racialized identity, and economic hardship makes this population particularly vulnerable to interpersonal violence, yet this population is underrepresented in the literature.

Historical redlining, neighborhood disadvantage, and reports of child maltreatment in a large urban county.

Background: Child protective services (CPS) reports are spatially concentrated in disadvantaged neighborhoods and Black children are more likely than White children to reside in these neighborhoods. Entrenched patterns of racial residential segregation reflect the lasting impact of historical redlining - a racist practice spearheaded by the federally sponsored Home Owners' Loan Corporation (HOLC) in the 1930s that assigned worst risk grades to minoritized neighborhoods. Research has established links between historically redlined areas and the present-day wellbeing of children and families; however, little is known about the relationship between historical redlining and CPS report rates in neighborhoods.

Affordable Housing and Neighborhood Child Maltreatment Reports.

Reports of child maltreatment vary by neighborhood characteristics, yet the influence of housing affordability is less understood. The current study examines the relationship between reports of suspected child maltreatment and the spatial distribution of affordable housing across 2,341 census tracts in Los Angeles County, California. Bayesian conditionally autoregressive model results indicate that neighborhoods where residents paid a greater share of their income in rent had fewer reports of suspected child maltreatment, while neighborhoods with a higher number of subsidized rental units had more reports.

State Policies on Child Maltreatment and Racial Disproportionality.

Over the past several decades researchers have documented disproportionality for Black families across multiple decision-making points within the child welfare system. Yet, few studies have examined how specific state policies may impact disproportionality across decision points. The racial disproportionality index (RDI) was calculated for Black children in each state and Washington DC ( 51) based on the proportion of children who were received a referral to CPS, a substantiated investigation, or entered foster care.

Child protective services involvement and exclusionary school discipline.

The study examined the impact of child protective services (CPS) contact on out-of-school suspensions for 49,918 Wisconsin students (followed from ages 5-6 to 14-15; [school years 2010-2019; 74% White; 7% Black; 11% Hispanic; 8% other; 49% female]). A quasi-experimental design comparing recent CPS contact to upcoming (future) CPS contact shows that both recent CPS contact without foster care and future CPS contact predict higher odds of suspension compared with no contact. Higher odds of suspension emerged prior to CPS contact and did not substantially increase during or after CPS contact, suggesting that system-induced stress is not a primary driver of behavioral problems leading to suspension.