Substantiation and Maltreatment Rereporting: A Propensity Score Analysis

• NCJ Number: 226256
• Journal: Child Maltreatment Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2009 Pages: 27-37
• Author(s): Tamara Fuller; Martin Nieto
• Date Published: February 2009
• Length: 11 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined the relationship between substantiation and maltreatment rereporting.

Abstract

Results confirmed that substantiated and unsubstantiated cases differed significantly on all variables prior to the matching procedures, although the magnitude of the differences on some variable was small. After matching, no significant differences existed. Children with initially substantiated maltreatment reports are at significantly higher risk for rereporting than those with initially unsubstantiated reports. Although the use of substantiation in maltreatment research, especially the exclusion of unsubstantiated cases in samples of maltreated children, is not without critics, the results of the current study do not indicate that this practice is invalid or without merit. There may be valid reasons to exclude unsubstantiated cases from certain studies. Because some unknown percentage of unfounded reports may actually contain spurious information, there may be higher degrees of error variance introduced that could reduce the validity of research findings. If the unsubstantiated cases are a heterogeneous group including both types of children, that is children who were actually maltreated and not substantiated due to lack of evidence or other reasons, and children who were not maltreated, then including these cases in samples of maltreated children introduces unwanted heterogeneity into the sample that may affect the results. The decision to include or exclude children with unsubstantiated allegations seems best determined by weighing the potential consequences of diluting the sample with children who may not have experienced any maltreatment (false positives) versus excluding some eligible children who experienced actual maltreatment but had reports that were unsubstantiated (false negatives). Data were collected from the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services administrative database on a sample of 188,471 child investigations that occurred during 1999 to 2004. Tables, figures, and references