Parents’ Safety Nets, Child Protective Services Involvement, and Child Outcomes

Project Summary/Abstract Child maltreatment is a serious problem in the U.S. and worldwide. An estimated 1 in 7 children are maltreated each year, and most recent annual U.S. data suggest that over 618,000 child maltreatment cases were substantiated. Approximately 30% of substantiated child and protectice services (CPS) cases lead to child

removal from the home and placement in foster care. Support networks, or safety nets, are a protective factor associated with child abuse prevention. Research shows that, among vulnerable families in the general population, strong safety nets, including informal and formal supports, are important because they protect

against risks and benefit parental health, parenting practices, and child wellbeing. Despite the documented importance of safety nets for vulnerable families, we know much less about the safety nets of families involved with CPS. Importantly, safety nets may work differently for CPS involved families (e.g., social isolation is a

characteristic of parents involved with CPS, parental lack of engagement in formal supports also is a documented issue). Not understanding how informal and formal safety nets potentially complement or clash with one another may contribute to less than desirable outcomes for families involved with CPS (e.g.,

inconsistent participation in services, child removal from the home). Given the potential protective power of safety nets, not knowing how safety nets function specifically for families involved with the CPS is a significant gap because we spent over $33.0 billion U.S. federal, state, local dollars on child protective services in the last

fiscal year. With a sample of families involved with the U.S. CPS, this project will identify: (a) parents’ informal and formal supports (i.e., safety nets) over time; (b) how their safety nets are linked with child outcomes; and (c) the extent to which their safety nets uniquely, additively, and interactively influence the longitudinal

outcomes of youth involved with CPS. This is important because parental engagement in intervention services upon CPS involvement is key for positive family outcomes, yet we know very little about the combination of informal and formal supports—and each have strengths and limitations. This project innovatively applies safety

net frameworks developed with low-income, vulnerable but non-CPS involved families, to families involved with CPS. Results will move the field forward by filling an important research gap, and direct evidence-based shifts in child welfare practices by identifying how safety nets function over time and with what results.