DEFINITIONS AND POLICIES RELATED TO THE INCIDENCE OF CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT AND RELATED RISK

Mathematica Inc., Princeton NJ

Investigators

Abstract

The Definitions and Policies Related to the Incidence of Child Abuse and Neglect and Related Risk project will support the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in identifying federal, state, and/or local definitions and policies related to the surveillance of child maltreatment and related risk and protective factors. The project will explore promising and feasible strategies for compiling information from selected definitions and policies as well as extracting meaningful categories and variables to be uniformly coded. The objective is to create a database and analytical files of coded categories and variables. The database and analytic files would be a resource for researchers who are interested in examining differences in definitions and policies related to child maltreatment incidence across states and localities as well as over time. The primary goal is to allow researchers to link the analytic files to other data sources in order to address important questions about how variations in these definitions and policies are associated with child welfare intake, screening practices, substantiation decisions, service provision, and ultimately child safety and well-being.