Purpose: This project focused on individual and neighborhood characteristics associated with child maltreatment in Cuyahoga County, Ohio. It sought to better understand risk and protective factors associated with child maltreatment, specifically the roles of race and neighborhood disadvantage. It used an ecological framework that takes into account multiple levels, and incorporated a developmental perspective that suggests that risk and protective factors vary by child age. Particular attention was paid to race and racial disproportionality in the child welfare system.
Methodology: This study used a multi-level discrete time hazard model to estimate the effects of individual/household and neighborhood factors on the timing of child maltreatment reports accepted for investigation and indicated/substantiated reports of child maltreatment.
Findings: This study showed that younger children are at highest risk of being the subject of a maltreatment report, yet much of this increased risk is explained by mother’s age, marital status, use of alcohol and tobacco during pregnancy, and child’s birth weight and receipt of TANF. Additionally, being born to an African American mother greatly increases the likelihood of being the subject of a maltreatment report. However, once other individual and neighborhood factors are taken into consideration, the increased risk for Black children drops considerably and is no longer a significant predictor of investigated reports of child neglect or substantiated/indicated reports of maltreatment. This study found the hazard of child maltreatment to be greater among children living in impoverished and instable neighborhoods. Moreover, the impact of neighborhood characteristics was found to exert its strongest effect on reports of child neglect compared to all types of reports or indicated/substantiated reports of maltreatment. Finally, findings suggest that for Black children, the relationship between neighborhood disadvantage and maltreatment is less strong than for White children. In fact, White children living in very impoverished or instable neighborhoods have a higher hazard of being the subject of a maltreatment report than Black and Hispanic children. These findings suggest there may be a differential sensitivity to neighborhood disadvantage.