Recurrent involvement with the Quebec child protection system for reasons of neglect: A longitudinal clinical population study

Abstract

Studies in several jurisdictions have found that families become recurrently involved with child protection systems most frequently for reasons of neglect. Child protection involvement for reasons of neglect is shown to correlate with various socioeconomic vulnerabilities.

Objective: This study, the largest of its kind in Canada, examines when and for whom recurring conditions of neglect were most likely to occur for all children involved with child protection in the province of Quebec over a span of fifteen years.

Participants and setting: Specifically, the study population includes all children whose ongoing child protection intervention in Quebec closed between 2002 and 2017 (N = 76,176).

Methods: This clinical population study uses a longitudinal research design drawing anonymized clinical administrative data from all of Quebec's child protection jurisdictions spanning 15 years, and Quebec data extracted from the 2011 Canadian National Household Survey to estimate socioeconomic vulnerability.

Results: Of the total population studied, 32.5 % (N = 24,816) experienced a recurrence of maltreatment during the study period, of which more than one third (N = 8707) experienced a recurrence for reasons of neglect.

Conclusions: Because the association between socioeconomic vulnerability and recurrence of neglect indicates a gap in material and social supports-which child protection systems have neither the mandate nor the resources to fill-we propose additional avenues that we urge policymakers and practitioners to consider in supporting the demonstrated needs of these families.

Keywords: Administrative data; Census data; Child abuse and neglect; Child protection; Longitudinal analysis; Socioeconomic vulnerability.