Disentangling substantiation: The influence of race, income, and risk on the substantiation decision in child welfare

Understanding the source of disparities found at decision-making points along the child welfare pathway is essential to understanding and addressing the overrepresentation of African American children. Although research has documented the existence of disparities, it has been less successful in identifying the explanatory factors behind them. Critiques of research examining these disparities have suggested that poverty is likely a stronger explanatory factor than race, yet analyses that include measures of poverty using data from child welfare systems have largely not been conducted. This study uses data from the Texas child welfare system to identify the factors contributing to disparities at the substantiation decision. Given the relationship between poverty and child maltreatment, the analyses control for the effect of family income, as well as other factors related to maltreatment, to better understand the effect of race on this decision-making point. Findings indicate that when family income is controlled, race is not a significant factor in the substantiation decision. However, when also controlling for caseworker perceptions of risk, race emerges as the stronger explanatory factor. This suggests not only an important relationship between race, income, and risk assessment, but also that disproportionality in the child welfare system is a complex phenomenon that cannot be explained by a single factor. These results further demonstrate that the effect of racial bias on decision-making remains an important consideration in understanding the overrepresentation of African American children.

[1]  Bridgette Lery,et al.  Racial Disparity in Foster Care Admissions , 2007 .

[2]  T. D. Morton.  The Increasing Colorization of America's Child Welfare System: The Overrepresentation of African-American Children , 1999 .

[3]  J. Poertner,et al.  Race matters in child welfare : the overrepresentation of African American children in the system , 2005 .

[4]  J. Swets,et al.  A decision-making theory of visual detection. , 1954, Psychological review.

[5]  S. Pandey,et al.  Understanding the relationship between neighborhood poverty and specific types of child maltreatment. , 1996, Child abuse & neglect.

[6]  J. Eckenrode,et al.  Substantiation of child abuse and neglect reports. , 1988, Journal of consulting and clinical psychology.

[7]  A. Sedlak,et al.  Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS-4) , 2010 .

[8]  G. Tittle.  FACTORS THAT PREDICT THE DECISION TO PLACE A CHILD , 2001 .

[9]  J. Fluke,et al.  Disproportionate representation of race and ethnicity in child maltreatment: Investigation and victimization. , 2003 .

[10]  Samuel L. Myers,et al.  Racial disproportionality in reported and substained child abuse and nelgect: an examination of systematic bias , 2003 .

[11]  Brett Drake,et al.  Race and child maltreatment reporting: Are Blacks overrepresented? , 2009, Children and youth services review.

[12]  D. Schultz,et al.  Third National Incidence Study of Child abuse and Neglect , 1996 .

[13]  Barbara Mertz.  Children of the Storm , 2003 .

[14]  Charles L. Usher,et al.  Children and Youth Services Review , 2009 .

[15]  T. Cross,et al.  Caseworker Judgments and Substantiation , 2009, Child maltreatment.

[16]  S. Merhar,et al.  Letter to the editor , 2005, IEEE Communications Magazine.

[17]  E. Peters.  Children of the storm , 2004 .

[18]  S. Myers,et al.  Letter to the Editor [4] , 1999 .

[19]  B. Drake.  Predictors of Preventive Services Provision among Unsubstantiated Cases , 1996 .

[20]  Elizabeth Bartholet.  The Racial Disproportionality Movement in Child Welfare: False Facts and Dangerous Directions , 2009 .

[21]  J. Cappelleri,et al.  The epidemiology of child abuse: findings from the Second National Incidence and Prevalence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect. , 1993, American journal of public health.

[22]  L. Ross.  The Intuitive Psychologist And His Shortcomings: Distortions in the Attribution Process1 , 1977 .

[23]  K. Moore,et al.  Children in Poverty: Trends, Consequences, and Policy Options , 2009 .

[24]  Rae R. Newton,et al.  Race, ethnicity, and case outcomes in child protective services , 2004 .

[25]  Marian S. Harris,et al.  The interaction of race, ethnicity, and family structure with respect to the timing of family reunification , 2003 .

[26]  L. Dalgleish,et al.  The Decision-Making Ecology , 2013 .

[27]  D. English,et al.  Causes and Consequences of the Substantiation Decision in Washington State Child Protective Services , 2002 .

[28]  R. Barth,et al.  Racial Bias in Child Protection? A Comparison of Competing Explanations Using National Data , 2011, Pediatrics.

[29]  M. Levine,et al.  African-American families and child protection , 1996 .

[30]  Victoria Jeffries,et al.  The intersection of race, poverty and risk: understanding the decision to provide services to clients and to remove children. , 2008, Child welfare.

[31]  John G. Orme,et al.  Disposition of child physical abuse reports: Review of the literature and test of a predictive model , 1995 .

[32]  B. Freisthler,et al.  Understanding the geospatial relationship of neighborhood characteristics and rates of maltreatment for black, hispanic, and white children. , 2007, Social work.

[33]  C. Coulton,et al.  Measuring child maltreatment risk in communities: a life table approach. , 2004, Child abuse & neglect.