Subtypes and Multiple Types of Child Neglect and Re-Report

Several previous studies found that child neglect as the child maltreatment type of an initial report predicts higher recurrence or re-report rate (e.g. Lipien & Forthofer, 2004) than physical abuse although there was diversion in research methods (Helie & Bouchard, 2010). These studies did not consider subtypes or multiple types of child neglect even though lumping them together can hinder our understading of complexity and heterogenity of child neglect. To prevent re-report or recurrence of child neglect more effectively, we need to know how subtypes as well as multiple types of child neglect develop into re-report or recurrence. This study aims to examine 1) if children with different single and multiple subtypes of child neglect have higher risk of re-report than those with physical abuse; 2) if there are differences in the time length to the re-report among children reported with single and multiple subtypes of child neglect compared to physical abuse.

This study utilizes Illinois Child Abuse and Neglect Tracking System database. The sample consists of children investigated by Illinois Child Protective Service (CPS) in 2005 for physical or neglect allegation without any previous investigation since 2000. Total of 41,028 children were identified and followed up until 2010. Empirically driven subcategories of single and multiple neglect subtypes include lack of supervision; lack of supervision combined with environmental neglect; lack of supervision combined with substantial risk of harm; environmental neglect alone; environmental neglect combined with substantial risk of harm; and other neglect. Using survival analysis and ordinary least square regression, we examined these categories' hazard ratio of and the time length to re-report compared to physical abuse alone as the type of an initial report. We controlled for child age, gender, ethnicity, caretaker age, gender, ethnicity, number of children and caretakers at the household, and investigation finding.

Whereas environmental neglect combined with substantial risk of harm had a higher hazard ratio (1.14, p=.015) than physical abuse alone, single neglect subtypes (lack of supervision, environmental neglect) had lower re-report risk ratio (.77, p<.001 and .87, p<.001 respectively) than physical abuse. Regarding the time length, lack of supervision combined with environmental neglect were re-reported 79 days earlier than the physical abuse (p<.001), environmental neglect comes 61days earlier (p <.05) and lack of supervision alone came 37 days earlier than physical abuse (p<.05).

When risk of harm exists combined with environmental neglect, more attention needs to be paid to address family's basic needs through tangible support from CPS. Also, the time length to the re-report shows child neglect lead to shorter time length to re-report compared to physical abuse. The impact of differential response on child neglect re-report and the timing needs to be examined by future studies since DR is designed to provide more tangible support to families in needs. To have more conclusive findings on neglect and re-report, replication of this study is needed considering the diversity of sampling, analysis methods and follow-up period in previous studies (Helie & Bouchard, 2010) and differences in the states' definition of child neglect subtypes.