Single-Parent Births in California: A Population-Based Examination of the Risk of Child Protective Services Involvement

Background and Purpose: The establishment of paternity, or a second legal parent at birth, is associated with lower rates of adversities in early childhood, particularly infancy. Documentation of two legal parents at birth does not necessarily indicate the continued presence of the second parent in the child’s life, nor does it speak to the quality of the child-parent relationship. But given the social, financial, and relational context that often characterizes one- versus two-parent households, studying families where a child is known to enter the world with a single parent may be useful to understand other antecedents of maltreatment and risks. The purpose of this study was to examine differential rates of child protection system (CPS) involvement between infants with one or two legally established parents at birth.

Methods: We utilized California vital birth records to identify all children born in 2017 (N = 470,854), extracting maternal and infant characteristics directly from vital birth records. This cohort was then longitudinally linked to administrative child protection system (CPS) data to track reports of alleged maltreatment occurring within the first year of life. We compared the characteristics of infants born to two parents versus a single parent across birth record characteristics. We assessed the statistical significance of distributional differences using generalized linear models. We then specified a multivariable model to examine the association of sociodemographic and birth characteristics with the likelihood that the child was reported to CPS for alleged maltreatment, using the indicator of a single-parent birth as the key exposure variable.

Results: Birth records indicated that 7.1% of infants (n = 33,597) had only one legally established parent. Adjusting for sociodemographic factors, infants with only one parent were more than twice as likely to be reported for alleged maltreatment (IRR = 2.20; 99% CI [2.12, 2.29]). In the overall birth cohort, significant differences in the likelihood of a CPS report were observed by maternal sociodemographic factors (education, age, public insurance, race and ethnicity); however, these same factors were attenuated, to varying degrees, among infants with a single legal parent.

Conclusions and Implications: Infants with only one legally recognized parent at birth exhibited a greater prevalence of characteristics linked to increased risk of maltreatment reports. Gaining a deeper understanding of the broader context surrounding single parenthood, such as household structure and caregiving arrangements, may help clarify sources of vulnerability and inform targeted support services. While these infants faced elevated rates of CPS reporting, our findings also point to possible unmeasured factors, varying across subgroups, that contribute to their risk of maltreatment.