Journal article
Two Decades of Child Welfare System Contact in the Global North: A Research Note on Trends in 44 Countries
Demography, v 62(1), pp 1-15
01 Feb 2025
PMID: 39898618
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Child maltreatment and child welfare system contact are both associated with an elevated risk of adverse outcomes in childhood, adolescence, and adulthood. Yet, data on variation in system contact are available for only a handful of countries, limiting knowledge about the societal correlates of system contact. As reported in this research note, we identified, collected, and harmonized administrative data on child welfare agency investigations, confirmed maltreatment, and placements into out-of-home care for 44 countries in the Global North. We analyzed 15 sociodemographic factors commonly associated with child maltreatment and child welfare system contact. Results support three core conclusions. First, data are much more available on late-stage system contact (e.g., foster care caseloads) than for early-stage system contact (e.g., investigations). Second, whereas early-stage contact tended to be on the rise in most countries, late-stage contact was stable or declining. Cross-national variation in these
was generally less substantial than cross-national variation in
of child welfare system contact, indicating relatively stable cross-national differences. Third, cross-national variation in out-of-home care largely reflected, but was not reducible to, regional and sociocultural variation: we find little evidence for universal drivers of foster care caseloads across the Global North.
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Details
- Title
- Two Decades of Child Welfare System Contact in the Global North: A Research Note on Trends in 44 Countries
- Creators
- Christopher Wildeman - Duke UniversityAlexander F. Roehrkasse - Butler UniversityAlexandra Gibbons - Duke UniversitySarah Sernaker - Duke UniversityLiza Becker - Drexel UniversityPeter Fallesen - Stockholm University
- Publication Details
- Demography, v 62(1), pp 1-15
- Publisher
- Duke University Press
- Number of pages
- 15
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- College of Medicine
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:001439971200001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85219757159
- Other Identifier
- 991022197421704721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- International collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Demography