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Abstract
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BACKGROUND: Child abuse and neglect is a public health priority due to its long-term maladaptive consequences. No study in the USA has assessed the nature and magnitude of the social deprivation effect on substantiated child maltreatment risk.
OBJECTIVES: To examine linear and non-linear relationships between area level deprivation and the log-risk of both substantiated physical abuse and neglect while accounting for spatial and heterogeneous random effects.
METHODS: Substantiated child maltreatment and population data (2008-2015) were aggregated to neighborhoods in Bernalillo County, New Mexico. The contribution of area level deprivation to the geographical variation in the log-risks of substantiated child physical abuse and neglect was modeled using Bayesian spatial regression.
RESULTS: Forty-three percent and 46.4 % of the 153 neighborhoods recorded greater risk for either substantiated physical abuse or neglect compared to the county average. The most deprived 20 % of neighborhoods had 71 % and 72 % more cases of substantiated physical abuse and neglect, respectively, than would be expected if the substantiations were randomly distributed throughout the county. Area level deprivation explained 47 % of the variation in substantiated physical abuse and 51 % of the variation in substantiated neglect after controlling for both spatial autocorrelation and heterogeneity.
CONCLUSIONS: Implications from this study can be used to quantify disparities in substantiated child maltreatment attributed to regional differences in social deprivation and to identify priority areas for intervention.
Language: en |