Unintentional child injury in child welfare placements.

Background: Child welfare professionals are charged with protecting children from non-accidental caregiving behaviors resulting in intentional injuries as well as environmental risks and parenting behaviors resulting in unintentional injuries. Yet little is known about unintentional injury prevalence and risk factors by child welfare placement type.

Objective: To examine factors related to unintentional child injury requiring medical attention, including child welfare placement type, child behavioral problems, caregiver characteristics, and neighborhood factors.

Methods: Data from the second and third wave of the 2010 National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW II) were used. Stable child welfare placements between waves 2 and 3 included investigated biological, reunified, adopted, licensed and unlicensed kin, and nonkin foster homes. Logistic regression analysis modeled injury as a function of placement type while controlling for other covariates. Interaction effects between placement and child behavioral scores were also modeled.

Results: Children with more behavioral problems were at greater odds of an injury (OR = 1.05, p < .01) compared to children with fewer behavioral problems. However, interaction models showed that children with more behavioral problems were at decreased odds of injury if living with unlicensed kin (OR = .91, p < .05), licensed kin (OR = .92, p < .001), or foster care (OR = .92, p < .001) compared to biological homes.

Conclusion: The absence of a behavioral problem was associated with higher risk of injury for children placed in foster care. More research is needed to better understand injury type, prevalence and specific risk factors.