Chapter 7: Additional Research Activities Related to NCANDS

Chapter 7
Additional Research Activities Related to NCANDS
Child Maltreatment 2001

In this chapter, other efforts to examine child maltreatment issues through analyses, reports, meetings, and training of researchers are briefly summarized. Suggestions for future research are also made.

Research Conducted by U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Children's Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth and Families
Administration for Children and Families
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Children's Bureau is preparing Child Welfare Outcomes 2000: Annual Report, which is the third annual report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The report contains information by State on key child maltreatment indicators, including the two national standards —reduce recurrence of child abuse and/or neglect, and reduce the incidence of child abuse and/or neglect in foster care —as well as information on foster care and adoption. Data from NCANDS are used for the child maltreatment sections. Qualitative information obtained from the Child and Family Services Reviews (CFSRs) is also included. The report will be available in 2003 on the Children's Bureau Web site at http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb.

For further information about the Child Welfare Outcomes 2000: Annual Report, contact:
Sharon Newburg-Rinn, Ph.D.
Social Science Research Analyst
Division of Data, Research, and Innovation
Children's Bureau
ACYF/ACY/HHS
300 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20447
Snewburg-rinn@acf.hhs.gov

The National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) under a cooperative agreement with the Children's Bureau has released four datasets from NCANDS. Datasets 75, 89, and 90 are extracts from the case-level files submitted by participating States from 1995 to 1999. The following table shows the number of States that made their data available to NDACAN and the total number of records in the datasets by year.

Year	Number of States	Total Number of Records
1995	10	630,594
1996	8	383,275
1997	9	376,919
1998	12	660,081
1999	14	783,467

The extracts include information on the report source, the investigation outcome, the child and the caregiver characteristics, the service delivery, and the types of maltreatment. The case-level datasets are useful for in-depth analyses of the relationship of specific variables to maltreatment.

NDACAN also has released dataset 93, which is a cumulative file from the aggregate data collection form, the Summary Data Component, of NCANDS for the years 1990-1999. This dataset contains key aggregate numbers for all reporting States for the 10 years and is useful for trend analysis.

Future plans include updating the cumulative file to include 2000 and 2001 data, and to provide the full case-level data files for 2000 and 2001 to researchers. Policies and procedures for access to these datasets are currently under development. The complete files will include more extensive data on children with unsubstantiated dispositions and data on perpetrators.

For further information about NDACAN, contact:
Elliott G. Smith, Ph.D.
National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect
Cornell University
Family Life Development Center
MVR Hall
Ithaca, NY 14853-4401
egs1@cornell.edu

The National Indian Child Welfare Association (NICWA) has received a 3-year grant from the Children's Bureau to help American Indian communities develop a system for reporting incidents of child abuse and neglect. The system will parallel the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). Tribal sites —with NICWA —will design and undertake the data collection of child maltreatment. Between 12 to 20 tribes in Alaska, Oklahoma, and Oregon will participate in the project.

The first step in the development of the system will be the creation of culturally appropriate definitions of abuse and neglect. This will include not only modifications of standard definitions, but also the development of strengths-based descriptions of children, families, and communities to be included with data collected on abuse and neglect. NICWA will be responsible for computer equipment and software, training, and resources for the tribal sites. During the last year of the project, trial reports will be collected at the tribal sites and sent electronically to NICWA, and from NICWA to the NCANDS. It is anticipated that this pilot data collection effort will be a model for the future collection of data from American Indian tribes nationwide.

For additional information on this project, contact:
Jody Becker-Green, M.S.W.
National Indian Child Welfare Association
5100 SW Macadam Avenue
Suite 300
Portland, OR 97201
beckergreen@nicwa.org

The Children's Bureau funded a Research Roundtable on Children of Color in Child Welfare, which had three major components —developing a database of empirical studies of racial disproportionality in the child welfare systems, commissioning papers from researchers on racial and ethnic disproportionality in child welfare, and conducting a scientific meeting.

One of the papers presented at the meeting held September 19-20, 2002 discussed child maltreatment disproportionality using data for more than 700,000 children in 5 States from NCANDS. State disproportionality representation indices (DRI) and disparity indices (DI) were constructed for children who were the subjects of investigation and for children who were found to be victims of maltreatment. County-level analyses also were conducted.

The Investigation DRI was constructed using both investigation counts of children and population counts; the Victim DRI was constructed using victim counts and investigation counts. In other words, the Investigation DRI indicates whether more children by race were investigated than they are represented in the general population. The Victim DRI represents whether more children by race were found to be victims than were represented in the population of children who received an investigation. Similar methods were used to obtain the Investigation and Victim DI. The Investigation DI and the Victim DI use the odds of a child from a nonreference group being investigated or victimized compared to a reference group. Whites were used as the reference group.

In each of the five States and for both the DRI and the DI, African American children were overrepresented and White children consistently underrepresented in investigations. In contrast, the degree of overrepresentation in victimization for both DRI and DI measures, while present, was considerably smaller. Furthermore, results for African Americans and Whites measured by the Victim DRI varied greatly from county to county, but demonstrated little disproportionality.

This paper will be published along with other papers from the conference. For further information on this paper, contact:

John D. Fluke, Ph.D.
Director of Research
Walter R.McDonald & Associates, Inc.
15884 E. Crestridge Circle
Centennial, CO 80015
jfluke@wrma.com
For further information on the conference, please contact:
Mary Bruce Webb, Ph.D.
Senior Research Analyst
Child Outcomes Research and Evaluation, OPRE
Administration for Children and Families
370 L'Enfant Promenade, SW
7^th Floor West
Washington, DC 20447
mbwebb@acf.hhs.gov

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation has contracted with Westat to produce its Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth: 2002 report. Data on abuse and neglect from NCANDS are included in this report. The data include the number of estimated victims; types of maltreatment; gender of victims; age of victims; and race and Hispanic origin of victims. The report will be released in early 2003 and available on the Internet at http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/02trends/index/htm.

For further information about the Trends in the Well-Being of America's Children and Youth: 2002 report, contact:
Greg F. Orlofsky
Research Analyst
Westat
1650 Research Blvd. RA 1231
Rockville, MD 20850-3195
gregorlofsky@westat.com

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

The Division of Violence Prevention held a meeting "Monitoring Child Neglect" in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 29,2002. The meeting brought together two groups with different perspectives on child neglect to discuss measurement issues related to public health surveillance of child neglect. The first group represented the psychologists, social workers, pediatricians, and other clinicians who have worked to monitor and respond to incidents of neglect for decades. The second group included researchers from the public health community, who were relatively new to the issue of child neglect but offered experience in the measurement of risk factors and outcomes. The meeting began with an overview of the public health approach to child neglect surveillance and descriptions of the newly initiated pilot State surveillance programs in California, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Rhode Island. Presentations about NCANDS and the National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS) followed. The meeting participants then discussed "what we would like to know," "limitations and obstacles," uses of surveillance data, and next steps. One of the next steps will be to discuss the issue of definitions.

The report of the meeting is available at http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc. For further information on this initiative, contact:

Ileana Arias, Ph.D.
Chief
Etiology and Surveillance Branch
Division of Violence Prevention
National Center for Injury Prevention and Control
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Atlanta, GA 30333
iarias@cdc.gov

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Research Conducted by Other Federal Agencies and Departments

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
U. S. Department of Justice

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has funded the National Center for Juvenile Justice to develop "The Compendium of National Statistical Data Collections that Inform Juvenile Justice." NCANDS is among the first 10 data collections to be profiled. The profile includes information on the following topics —funding source, sampling, data collection procedures, instrumentation, key variables, quality controls, periodicity, representativeness, data access, and publications.

The Compendium will be released as a Web-based document by OJJDP in 2003. For further information on this project, contact:
Carl McCurley, Ph.D.
Research Associate
National Center for Juvenile Justice
710 Fifth Avenue
Pittsburgh, PA 15219
mccurley@ncjj.org

U.S. Census Bureau
U.S. Department of Commerce

The U.S. Census Bureau has compiled its 2002 edition of the Statistical Abstract of the United States. The Statistical Abstract contains a collection of statistics on social and economic conditions in the United States. Selected international data are also included. For many years, data from NCANDS have been included in the annual publication in two tables. One table reports on the characteristics of child victims by maltreatment, sex, age, and race or ethnicity. The second reports on the number of investigations, the number of children subject of investigations, and the number of victims by State.

The 2002 edition of the Statistical Abstract will be released soon. Online versions are available at http://www.census.gov/statab/.

For further information, contact:
Glenn W. King
Chief
Statistical Compendia Branch
Administrative and Customer Services Division
U.S. Census Bureau
Washington DC 20233-0001
glenn.w.king@census.gov

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Research Conducted by Other Organizations

The American Humane Association

Several jurisdictions are currently, or have recently been, considering whether law enforcement, child protective services (CPS), or some hybrid system best handles reports and investigations/assessments of child abuse and neglect. The goal of the Law Enforcement Investigation Models Study of the American Humane Association is to describe these different models for collaboration between child protective services and law enforcement in responding to child abuse and neglect. Study efforts were funded by the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation and guided by its newly independent Center for Community Partnerships in Child Welfare.

A statute and policy manual analysis of different models for CPS-law enforcement collaboration was completed for all 50 States. In addition, site visits were completed at six sites (each representing a different model of collaboration) to provide a more in-depth, site-specific analysis of how these different models are being operationalized. A report will be produced describing the models in use nationally and their implementation in specific sites.

As a part of the site-specific analysis, data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) will be reported to describe the incidence of substantiated and unsubstantiated reports, and the recurrence of maltreatment in jurisdictions utilizing different models of law enforcement-CPS collaboration.

For further information about the Law Enforcement Investigation Models Study, contact:
Amy Printz Winterfeld, J.D.
American Humane Association, Children's Services
63 Inverness Drive East
Englewood, CO 80112
awinterfeld@americanhumane.org

The National Working Group to Improve Child Welfare Data
Child Welfare League of America

The National Working Group to Improve Child Welfare Data comprises representatives from State child welfare agencies and is facilitated by the Child Welfare League of America. The Working Group recently completed a survey of how States are reporting data used to compute the State performance on the national standard for child abuse in foster care. State performance is calculated based on case-level data for the 9-month period of January-September. The percentage is computed by dividing the number of children reported to NCANDS whose perpetrator was either a foster parent or a residential staff person by the number of children served in foster care for the same period and reported to the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS).

Comparability among 26 States was revealed in the following areas of maltreatment reports: relatives or household members of foster parents (coded as "Other"); foster parents who maltreated their own biological or adopted children (coded as "Parent"); and residential facility staff (coded as "Facility Staff"). States varied with reporting on licensed and unlicensed foster parents. More than half of the States that submitted case-level information indicated that licensed relative foster parents would be coded as "Foster Parent."Additionally, almost half of the States indicated that unlicensed relative foster parents would be coded as "Other Relative." Inconsistency was also seen within States, where both categories were used.

The survey also identified differences in State reporting to NCANDS and AFCARS. Perpetrators who were relative foster parents in unlicensed homes were generally not included in NCANDS "Foster Parent" category, but were coded as "Other."However, these children were counted in the AFCARS population. In addition, perpetrators who were residential facility staff were coded as "Facility Staff" by some States in NCANDS, although the children may not have been under the care, placement, and supervision of the child welfare agency and may not have been reported to AFCARS. These differences were reflected in the data used in computing the national standard, but continue to be of concern.

For further information on the National Working Group or to receive a copy of the report, contact:
Kristen Woodruff
National Working Group Project Manager
Child Welfare League of America
50 F Street NW, 6th Floor
Washington, DC 20001
Kristen@cwla.org

Child Trends

In May 2002, Child Trends issued a Research Brief "The Multiple Dimensions of Child Abuse and Neglect." The paper relied on NCANDS data for most of the child abuse and neglect information. In addition to discussing the consequences of maltreatment, the paper identified a number of challenges for child abuse and neglect research. Recommendations included the following:

Collect more information about the positive interactions of adults when responding to the needs of abused and neglected children;
Learn more about the conditions of children who are abused or neglected, including birth weight, height and growth patterns, experience with chronic or acute illness, and school readiness and performance to gain a greater understanding of risk and protective factors; and
Establish benchmarks of child well-being that could help child welfare agencies to estimate risk, create strategic plans, articulate positive milestones for populations of at-risk children, and use such milestones to support the healthy development of children.

The authors argued that child maltreatment is "only one part of children's lives in households that experience poverty, substance abuse, mental health problems, physical disability, stress, or other forms of violence." They suggested that recognized national health and developmental indicators should be integrated with other routine data collection.

The paper is available on the Web at http://www.childtrends.org. For further information, contact:
Rosemary Chalk
Senior Research Associate
Child Trends, Inc.
4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Suite 100
Washington, DC 20008-2304
rchalk@childtrends.org

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Suggestions for Future Research

Some topics of interest for future research or program planning and review are briefly discussed below.

The strengths of using cohort longitudinal data have been demonstrated in a number of fields. There has been significant progress in the development of such datasets for understanding foster care and adoption dynamics. Event histories of children who come to the attention of the CPS system also are of interest. The creation of cohort longitudinal data for maltreatment victims or of all children who are the subjects of an investigation or assessment would be useful in further understanding recurrence, as well as other aspects of child maltreatment.
While variation among States in terms of rates of investigation, victimization, and recurrence has been reported, there is less information on within-State variation at the local agency level or at the county level. The analysis of child maltreatment data at the local level would be helpful to States in identifying problems and improving performance.
The deaths of children due to maltreatment continue to be of local and national concern. While the profile of the child fatalities in terms of age, sex, and race is known, additional research needs to be conducted in terms of other risk factors.

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