Citation

Hamilton HA, Boak A, Mann RE. Child Abuse Negl. 2013; 37(9): 712-715.

Affiliation

Centre for Addiction and Mental Health, 33 Russell Street, Toronto, ON, M5S 2S1, Canada; Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.chiabu.2013.06.001

PMID

23838213

Abstract

Direct questions on child maltreatment in population-based surveys are often limited by ethical and methodological issues. This restricts the ability of researchers to examine an important aspect of early adversity and its relationship to health and behavior. An alternative to excluding issues of maltreatment entirely in population-based surveys is to include questions on child and family involvement with child protective services (CPS). A school-based adolescent survey that included a question on child and family involvement with CPS yielded results that were generally consistent with other studies relating child maltreatment to health and behavioral outcomes such as psychological distress symptoms, delinquency, aspects of bullying, and health service utilization. Such findings suggest that questions on involvement with CPS may be a reasonable proxy for child maltreatment. Despite the lack of information on the reason for involvement or specific categories of maltreatment, CPS involvement questions highlight the shared familial experience that surrounds CPS involvement and serves as a general reflection of an adverse experience that can be utilized by researchers interested in early experiences.

Language: en