Abstract
BackgroundBuilding an effective casework system for child maltreatment is a global issue. We estimated the effect of household dysfunction (i.e., interparental violence, caregiver mental health problems, and caregiver substance abuse) on child maltreatment to understand how to advance the current framework of child welfare.MethodsThe sample comprised 759 children (1- to 17-year-old; mean age was 10.6; 404 boys and 355 girls) placed in temporary custody units (one of the strongest intervention of the Japanese child protection system). Caseworkers from 180 units across 43 prefectures completed questionnaires on children and their family and were asked whether a child maltreatment report had been made after cancelation of custody in a 15-month follow-up period. The relations of household dysfunction and maltreatment reports were assessed using the Cox proportional hazard model.ResultsAbout half (48.4%) of the children had been placed in the unit because of maltreatment, and 88.3% had a history of victimization. Seventy-six cases had maltreatment reports after cancelation. We entered household dysfunction variables individually into the model, and each had a significant relationship with maltreatment reports (hazard ratios for interparental violence, caregiver mental health problem, and substance abuse were 1.69, 1.69, and 2.19, respectively) after covariate adjustment. When treating these three variables as cumulative risk score model of household dysfunction, the hazard ratio increased with increasing number of score (1.96 for score two; 2.35 for score three; score 0 as reference).ConclusionsGreater household dysfunction score is a risk of maltreatment after intensive intervention. It is imperative to construct systems facilitating cooperation between child and adult service sectors and to deliver seamless services to children and families. Our findings provide child protect services with risk-stratified interventions for children at victimization risk and promote adult-focused services to be proactive in prevention or intervention for adults with perpetration risk.
Highlights
Building an effective casework system for child maltreatment is a global issue
This study was conducted as a part of a nationwide surveillance of temporary custody units in Child guidance center (CGC) in 2014, which was in turn part of a child welfare research project
Six out of every ten (58.8%) children were from single-parent families, while around one fifth (20.2%) of children lived with both biological parents
Summary
We estimated the effect of household dysfunction (i.e., interparental violence, caregiver mental health problems, and caregiver substance abuse) on child maltreatment to understand how to advance the current framework of child welfare. Child guidance centers (CGCs), which are the primary agencies for child protection in Japan, received 89,810 reports of maltreatment in 2014—2.6 times the number 10 years prior [1]. It is not uncommon for each social worker to handle more than 100 cases annually. Such an overload has been associated with a substantial number of maltreatment occurrence after CGC involvement, which is an issue of a great public concern. For maltreatment recurrence, the characteristics of the incidence (e.g., types or number of previous episodes of maltreatment) [6, 15], the CPS intervention [3, 6, 11], and post-investigation services [3, 6, 10, 15,16,17] contribute
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