An examination of re-referrals and substantiations among families referred to home-based, differential response services and a comparison group: Does successful completion matter?

Abstract

Although some studies have examined child maltreatment recidivism following participation in a home-based, differential response program (HBDR) after a child protective services (CPS) investigation, they often do not include adequate comparison groups, are limited to one outcome, and do not examine outcomes by successful completion. Using administrative data from a Southwestern state including children whose families received HBDR services following an allegation of maltreatment, this study compared families who received HBDR services (n = 4,079) to families that were investigated but did not receive HBDR services (n = 4,221) using two indicators of CPS recidivism (i.e., re-reports and substantiation) over a period of 4 ½ to 7 years.Bivariate analyses indicated that families who received HBDR services had an average substantiation rate of 7.9% using a revised federal methodology, which was slightly higher than the comparison group; the substantiation rate for HBDR families during the entire study period was 14.5%. However, HBDR families had lower re-report rates at one year and during the overall study period relative to the comparison group. In contrast, the re-report and substantiation rate for HBDR families who successfully completed services was lower than the comparison group. Multivariable analyses indicated that successful completion of HBDR was associated with lower re-referral rates and substantiation rates after adjusting for demographic and case characteristics. These findings suggest that prevention programs offering HBDR could make a short-term and long-term impact on the re-referral and substantiation rates among high-risk families after a child abuse investigation and emphasize the importance of ensuring that participants successfully complete HBDR as this was associated with reductions in recidivism.