Outcomes from early child maltreatment prevention program in child protective services

Lina Sapokaite Millett

Children and Youth Services Review, 2019, vol. 101, issue C, 329-340

Abstract: Child abuse and neglect is a major public health problem. Early efforts to prevent maltreatment are much needed to avoid a number of serious and irrevocable negative consequences for children. Currently, most early prevention approaches utilize a variety of community based services while the public Child Protective Services (CPS) system has yet to settle on a clear paradigm for prevention. Accordingly, there is a need to better understand the potential of such services within the CPS. This study sought to determine whether the Parent Support Outreach (PSO) program, an early CPS response and service model to screened-out reports and other high-risk families in Minnesota's child welfare system, resulted in less subsequent CPS involvement, increased use of mental health and substance abuse services, and improvement of family's economic well-being. The study also examined whether these outcomes varied across population subgroups. Employing a quasi-experimental design with propensity score methods and using multiple administrative data sources, the study found that the PSO group experienced significantly fewer CPS reports and out of home placements and was more likely to receive adult mental health services than similar families in the Differential Response program. Additionally, there were a number of significant subgroup effects across multiple outcomes. Support for the PSO program offers new opportunities to jurisdictions considering offering early prevention services to families in need.

Keywords: Child maltreatment; Prevention; Child protective services; Screened-out reports; Quasi-experiment (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740918311502
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:101:y:2019:i:c:p:329-340

DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.04.009

Access Statistics for this article

Children and Youth Services Review is currently edited by Duncan Lindsey

More articles in Children and Youth Services Review from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().