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Many youth serving organizations (YSOs) implement child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention strategies. We examined the potential impact of those strategies by retrospectively estimating the prevalence of CSA and boundary violating behaviors experienced in five broad organizational settings: organized sports, religious organizations, music or arts programs, K-12 schools, and the "Big 6 settings" (i.e., 4-H, Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Boy Scouts of America, Girl Scouts of the USA, and the YMCA of the USA). We compared victimization rates between nationally representative cohorts of younger adults (age 18-22; N = 3174) and slightly older adults (age 32-36, N = 3237). Across all participants and settings, 3.75% (n = 363) experienced CSA in YSOs. Among survivors, younger adults reported experiencing a lower proportion of CSA within Big 6 settings than older adults (29.1% vs. 44.5%; p < .05), suggesting that prevention efforts may be having the desired effects in Big 6 settings.

There is a dearth of research examining repeat human trafficking victimization among children involved with the child welfare system (i.e., single system involvement) and children involved with both the child welfare and juvenile justice systems (i.e., dual system involvement). This study uses longitudinal statewide linked administrative data from the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF) and Florida Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to investigate both initial and subsequent verified human trafficking allegations among single and dual system-involved children. We conducted logistic regression models to identify youth characteristics, prior DCF experiences, and prior DJJ experiences that predict initial and subsequent trafficking victimization. We also conducted survival analysis to identify time until human trafficking victimization and revictimization. Prior maltreatment, placement history, missing child events, referral without adjudication, community supervision, and residential facility placement predict initial trafficking victimization. These same indicators predict revictimization, except for prior placement history, residential facility commitment, prior physical abuse and prior sexual abuse. Approximately 1 in 5 child victims experience trafficking revictimization; the median time between initial and subsequent revictimization is about 6 months. This research has implications for policy and practice among system-involved children at greatest risk for human trafficking revictimization.

Research suggests that the dimensions of childhood maltreatment (type, age of onset, duration, frequency and perpetrator) play an important role in determining health and wellbeing outcomes, though little information is available on these dimensions for any care experienced cohorts. This study aimed to determine if any variation in maltreatment dimensions were experienced between two subsets of the nationally representative Australian Child Maltreatment Study, both of which reported childhood maltreatment histories: care-experienced (n = 358) and non-care-experienced (n = 4922). Using a series of independent t-tests and chi-square tests, we compared the two groups on seven dimensions (number of maltreatment types, range of maltreatment items, age of onset, duration, frequency, perpetrator number, and perpetrator type) for the five child maltreatment types (physical, emotional, sexual abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence). Results showed that the care-experienced group reported a higher intensity of maltreatment, being younger when maltreatment first started, experiencing greater variety of maltreatment types, for longer periods, more times and by more perpetrators than maltreated people with no care experience. We conclude that children and young people in out-of-home care experience maltreatment at a higher intensity than the rest of the population, which has implications for effective treatment.

Child welfare caseworkers typically have high turnover rates, and little is known about how to increase their job satisfaction. Utilizing structural equation modeling, this study investigates the connections between empowerment, leadership, learning culture, physical environment, and job satisfaction among social workers in child welfare organizations. We employ a dataset from a comprehensive organizational health assessment survey of 2801 individuals to analyze the direct and indirect effects of empowerment variables on job satisfaction, as well as the influence of leadership, learning culture, and the caseworkers' physical environment. The findings highlight the potential for empowerment as a tool for strengthening culture and increasing job satisfaction. Specifically, trust and self-determination had the strongest relationship with the empowerment construct in this study.

The topics of psychological maltreatment by teachers and children's cyberbullying perpetration have both attracted increasing research attention. However, clarification of the development and specific psychological mechanisms linking psychological maltreatment by teachers to cyberbullying perpetration by students remains necessary. Thus, this study examined the longitudinal relations between psychological maltreatment by teachers and subsequent cyberbullying perpetration, along with the mediating role of self-esteem and the moderating role of sex. A total of 5563 Chinese elementary school students (56% boys; M_age = 9.92 years, SD = 0.74) completed self-report measures on 5 occasions across 2.5 years. Latent growth curve mediation modeling was applied to examine the longitudinal relations among the variables. Results showed that (a) Psychological maltreatment by teachers was positively associated with subsequent cyberbullying perpetration; (b) The developmental trajectory of psychological maltreatment by teachers was indirectly associated with the developmental trajectory of cyberbullying perpetration through the mediating role of self-esteem; (c) Sex moderated the relations among psychological maltreatment by teachers, self-esteem and cyberbullying perpetration among children such that self-esteem mediated the relation between psychological maltreatment by teachers and cyberbullying perpetration for boys but not girls. Implications for the prevention of psychological maltreatment by teachers and cyberbullying perpetration were discussed.

One of the most widely used data sources for research on foster care and adoption is the Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS). County identifiers in AFCARS are suppressed for all counties with fewer than 1000 cases to prevent the re-identification of vulnerable children, but this also impacts researchers' ability to study smaller communities and analyze how local environments may affect out-of-home placements. This study uses non-public AFCARS datasets to assess, for the first time, how data suppression rules impact data access and re-identification risk. It compares the long-standing 1000-case threshold against a wide range of potential alternatives and finds substantial data access gains coupled with moderate risk increases for thresholds between 400 and 700. Adopting a 700-case threshold leads to a 50% increase in the number of identifiable counties while also keeping the percentage of fostered children who face an elevated risk of re-identification below 1%. Making data from a substantial number of rural counties available to researchers requires much larger threshold changes, which in turn increases re-identification risks.

Children experiencing maltreatment in the first 3 years of life are at risk for several developmental challenges throughout the lifespan. Researchers and practitioners have emphasized understanding how institutional supports implemented through state governments may support infants and toddlers' development, but less attention has been paid to the potential effects of state policies on maltreatment specifically. We tested whether state-level policies providing economic and family planning support implemented between 2005-2019 were associated with rates of reported and substantiated abuse and neglect among children under three. Two-way fixed effects models indicate that implementing a state Child Tax Credit, expanding contraception access, raising minimum wages, and expanding eligibility for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programs were associated with decreased maltreatment according to various indicators among Black, White, and Hispanic children. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.

The purpose of this study is to explore the association between material hardship and child maltreatment, mediated by social cohesion. We used three waves (age three, age five, and age nine) from Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCW), a longitudinal cohort study of approximately 5000 families in 20 U.S. cities. The sample size was 2402. The independent variable was material hardship, and the dependent variable was child maltreatment (physical/psychological abuse and neglect). Using a multiple regression analysis, the current study found a positive association between material hardship and frequency of physical/psychological abuse. Social cohesion was found to mediate the relationship between material hardship and physical/psychological abuse among financially secure mothers in the Sobel test, which assesses the presence of indirect effects of the independent variable on the dependent variable. These findings suggest that material hardship mitigation and social cohesion enhancement are potential strategies to prevent physical/psychological abuse.

Child maltreatment can affect multiple children in a family, yet its occurrence and chronicity has been often assessed by focusing on a single child. Although this approach provides valuable insights, considering the experiences of all children in a family may provide a more complete understanding of maltreatment dynamics. Using linked birth and child protection system (CPS) records from California, we analyzed 20 years of data on 194,514 first-time mothers to document the prevalence, timing, and chronicity of maternal CPS reporting across multiple children. Mothers were categorized by the number of live childbirths: one (25.7%), two (36.2%), three (20.9%), and four or more (17.2%). Overall, 33.0% of mothers were reported to CPS, increasing from 18.5% for mothers with one child to 63.1% for those with four or more children. For mothers with two or more children, more than 70% experienced an initial CPS report only after the second child's birth. Our findings have implications for understanding the dynamics of maternal reports to CPS, emphasizing the need for lasting and family-focused interventions.

The current study aimed to examine the extent to which neighborhood structural factors commonly found to be associated with child maltreatment in urban areas also apply to rural areas. Using three years of administrative child welfare data, we examined patterns of child maltreatment across metro and nonmetro census tracts in the State of Michigan. Extending from social disorganization theory, a principal components factor analysis was conducted to determine the extent to which neighborhood structural factors (neighborhood economic disadvantage, residential instability, and childcare burden) that have been tested in relation to child maltreatment in urban areas cluster together similarly in rural areas. Spatial analysis and negative binomial regression were used to examine: (1) the extent to which these three factors were related to child maltreatment substantiation rates in nonmetro census tracts; and (2) factors hypothesized to have unique impacts within nonmetro tracts, including seasonal housing and racial demographics of neighborhoods. Findings showed some similarities between metro and nonmetro areas, including associations of neighborhood poverty, single-parent households, and vacant housing units with increased levels of child maltreatment. Differences between metro and nonmetro areas were also identified, suggesting the need for additional research into the neighborhood correlates of rural child maltreatment.