Factors that Influence the Decision Not to Substantiate a CPS Referral

This federally-funded study examined factors that influenced the decision not to substantiate a child protective services (CPS) referral after a child protective services investigation in Washington State. The study was conducted in three distinct phases. Phase I: Child Protective Record Review consisted of a review of administrative records. Records were extracted from the state child protective database (CAMIS) and a rich dataset of child, family and allegation variables was created. The variables include demographic information, variables coded from the Washington Assessment of Risk Matrix (WARM) and the Modified Maltreatment Classification System (MMCS) as well as variables derived from a public assistance records match. The Phase I data file includes 2000 cases. Phase II: Child Protective Caseworker Survey was a mail and telephone survey of child protective services caseworkers in Washington State. All current child protective caseworkers in Washington State who had more than six months of job experience were invited to participate in the telephone and mail surveys. The Phase II data file includes the 106 respondents who answered both the telephone and mail surveys. Phase III: Child Protective Client Survey was a telephone survey of investigated CPS clients approximately 90 days post investigation. This dataset also includes records extracted from the state child protective database similar to those in the Phase I dataset. In addition to variables related to the interviews, the variables include demographic information, variables coded from the WARM and the Maltreatment MMCS as well as variables derived from a public assistance records match. The Phase III data includes data from 303 clients with completed interviews. The data from Phases I, II and III cannot be combined, as there is no common unit of analysis.

本项联邦资助的研究，旨在探究华盛顿州儿童保护服务（CPS）调查后，办案人员决定不认定该转介成立的影响因素。本研究分为三个独立阶段开展：
第一阶段：儿童保护档案审查。该阶段包含行政档案审查工作：从州级儿童保护数据库（CAMIS）中提取相关档案，并构建了涵盖儿童、家庭及指控相关变量的丰富数据集。变量类型包括人口统计信息、基于华盛顿风险评估矩阵（WARM）与改良虐待分类系统（MMCS）编码的变量，以及通过公共援助档案匹配获得的变量。本阶段数据集共包含2000份案例。
第二阶段：儿童保护社工调查。本研究采用邮寄与电话结合的调研方式，面向华盛顿州所有具备6个月以上从业经验的在职儿童保护社工发出参与邀请。本阶段数据集涵盖106名同时完成电话与邮寄调查的受访者数据。
第三阶段：儿童保护服务对象调查。该阶段于调查完成约90天后，对已接受CPS调查的服务对象开展电话访谈。本数据集除纳入访谈相关变量外，还包含从州级儿童保护数据库提取的、与第一阶段类似的档案数据，变量类型同样包括人口统计信息、基于WARM和MMCS编码的变量，以及通过公共援助档案匹配获得的变量。本阶段数据集共包含303名完成完整访谈的服务对象数据。
由于三个阶段不存在共同的分析单元，因此无法将第一、二、三阶段的数据进行合并。