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The overrepresentation of poor children in child welfare is a public health issue not a reporting problem

听

Source:听 Jonson-Reid, M., Drake, B., & Kohl, P.L. (2009). Is the overrepresentation of the poor in child welfare caseloads due to bias or need? Children and Youth Services Review, 31(3), 422鈥�427.

Reviewed by:听 Nico Trocm茅

Poor children are significantly overrepresented on child welfare caseloads. The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (Trocm茅, Fallon, et. al, 2005)1, for instance, found that nearly a quarter (24%) of maltreated children lived in families dependent on social assistance, and another 19% lived in families where the primary source of income was seasonal or part-time work or no known source of income. While this overrepresentation is certainly in part explained by the fact that poverty is a risk factor for maltreatment, some critics raise concern that poor families are also more likely to be reported because they are scrutinized more closely.

Jonson-Reid, Drake and Kohl test the class bias hypothesis using longitudinal data drawn from child welfare services as well as census, health, and corrections from a Midwestern city in the United States. They compare poor children with no child maltreatment reports, poor children with investigated child maltreatment reports, and non-poor children with investigated child maltreatment reports. Compared to non-poor children reported to child welfare, poor reported children generally presented a higher risk profile, more severe forms of maltreatment and higher rates of recidivism (64% vs. 33%).听 In other words there appears to be an inverse class bias whereby poor families must display higher levels of difficulties before child welfare services become involved.

Comparing poor non-reported children to poor reported children, the study finds that the reported children and their families presented a much higher risk profile; for example the reported children鈥檚 parents were four times more likely to have a documented mental health problem. These findings indicate that poor families are more likely to be reported for child maltreatment because of the array of stressors and risk factors that they face rather than because of higher levels of scrutiny or class bias. The authors aptly conclude that rather 鈥渢han see child welfare as an active force engaging families without need, an alternative is to view the reporting system as a means to identify higher risk families, and to channel services to these families and the areas in which they live鈥� (p. 427).

1 Trocm茅, N., Fallon, B., MacLaurin, B., Daciuk, J., Felstiner, C., Black, T., et al. (2005). . Ottawa, ON: Minister of Public Works and Government Services Canada, 148 pages.

Methodological Notes:

The data was extracted from California鈥檚 Child Welfare Services Case Management System. Limiting sample to first-time placements eliminates the problem of children with multiple placements during the study鈥檚 frame of study. In California, counties are the child welfare administration jurisdictions; Alameda contains variation in relevant variables such as poverty and ethnic differences. At the time of the study Alameda had a population of about 1.4 million residents, approximately 360,000 of which were children; about 15% of maltreatment allegations were substantiated, and about two-thirds of these resulted in a placement (child placements per year ranged from 841-1033 during the study period). Analyses were conducted using three different spatial scales 鈥� census tracts, census blocks and zip codes 鈥� to 鈥渕inimize the tendency to commit the ecological fallacy, whereby conclusions are drawn about smaller units or individuals based on results from aggregated areas鈥� (p.332). Data are cross-sectional and do not take into account individual case characteristics and cannot infer the causal link of the statistical relationship.

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