Child Maltreatment Recurrences Among Families Served by Child Protective Services, 1984 to 1992

This longitudinal study of 1,206 families assembled during a 4-year NCCAN-funded research project focuses on recurrences of child maltreatment among families known to public Child Protective Services (CPS). Objectives are to (1) describe recurrence of types, severity, rates, distributions, and frequency of maltreatment over five years; (2) replicate and extend knowledge about predicting recurrence risk after an index incident; (3) initiate development of models to predict recurrence risk after termination of CPS services; and (4) determine (a) whether variables that discriminate between maltreating and non-maltreating families are correlates of recurrent maltreatment and (b) whether hypotheses from models formulated to explain why some parents maltreat also explain recurrences. Products will include risk assessment models.