Citation

Brown SM, Orsi R, Chen PCB. Child Maltreat. 2019; ePub(ePub): 1077559519869395.

Affiliation

Larimer County Department of Human Services, Fort Collins, CO, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1077559519869395

PMID

31431072

Abstract

Many children and youth with child protection services (CPS) involvement enter out-of-home care. The aims of this study were to examine rates of reentry and risk factors associated with reentry into out-of-home care among children and youth involved in the child protection (reported for abuse/neglect) and youth-in-conflict (reported for behavioral issues) programs. This study used administrative data from Colorado's Statewide Automated Child Welfare Information System, which contains information on all children and youth who enter Colorado's CPS. Of the 14,461 children and youth in the child protection program and 2,353 children and youth in the youth-in-conflict program, 14.7% and 35.1%, respectively, reentered into out-of-home care. Families' prior history of CPS involvement and current CPS case characteristics better explained reentry into out-of-home care than child and family demographic characteristics alone. Understanding risk factors associated with reentry into out-of-home care is critical to inform the prevention of child maltreatment recurrence and ensure the safety, permanency, and well-being of children and youth.

Language: en

Keywords

child protection services; children and youth; out-of-home care; reentry; risk factors