1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«This study – the first of its kind in a Canadian jurisdiction – examines when and for whom recurring involvement with child protection for reasons of neglect are most likely to occur from the point of initial child protection case closure for all children […] whose services ended between 2002 and 2017 in the province of Quebec.» (p. 2)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
«This clinical population study uses a longitudinal research design that draws anonymized clinical administrative data from all of Quebec’s child protection jurisdictions and Quebec data extracted from the 2011 National Household Survey (NHS). […] The clinical population studied consists of the entire child population (N = 76,176) aged 17 years or younger served for the first time within one of Quebec’s child protection jurisdictions. Each member of the clinical population was defined as a child with ongoing child protection involvement whose first-ever child protection case was closed between April 1, 2002, and April 30, 2017.» (p. 2-3)

Type de traitement des données :
Analyse statistique

3. Résumé

«[T]he current study finds that the majority of children involved with child protection do not experience a recurrence of maltreatment after initial case closure. However, for those who do, this is driven predominantly by initial and subsequent child protection cases in which the primary concerns regarding the security and development of the child are coded as neglect, which is consistent with previous findings […].» (p. 8) «In this study, socioeconomic disadvantages were significant predictors of recurrence of maltreatment generally, and neglect in particular. The results regarding socioeconomic vulnerability and recurrent neglect cases prompt us to further consider chronic family need in analyzing child protection trajectories.» (p. 8) «For the younger cohort in our study, behavioral issues were related to an increased risk of recurrence of maltreatment, particularly for reasons of neglect. […] While behavioral problems were a main concern for child protection involvement in less than 1 % of cases closed for younger children […], [the authors’] findings highlight a subgroup of younger children facing a complex array of difficulties that surround neglect, which together affect their well-being and contribute to the chronicity of child protection system involvement.» (p. 8)