Family-focused interventions key to addressing child maltreatment, says study

About one-third of mothers in California were reported to the Child Protection System (CPS) at least once, but the percentage significantly increased as the number of children grew, finds a new analysis from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.

Most mothers who were reported to CPS had their initial report after their second child’s birth, said Eunhye Ahn, an assistant professor and author of “Maternal Reports to the Child Protection System: A Longitudinal Analysis of Multiple Children,” published Sept. 6 in the journal Child Maltreatment.

Ahn and her co-authors analyzed 20 years of data on more than 194,000 mothers in California and argued that policies need a focus beyond the individual children.

“Family-focused interventions are essential, especially for larger families with socioeconomic factors like public health insurance use; and racial and ethnic disparities are significantly associated with CPS reporting patterns,” she said.

“The research emphasizes the need for more nuanced and sustained interventions that address the chronic and recurring nature of child maltreatment across entire families, rather than concentrating solely on individual children or isolated incidents.”