The Administration for Children and Families estimates that over 6 million children were involved in maltreatment reports in 2013. But incidents of child maltreatment are likely underreported, with many more children experiencing abuse or at risk of abuse. At Mathematica Policy Research, our child welfare research is having an impact on policy to help prevent or better respond to child maltreatment. Below are three important examples of the way our work is making a difference:
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Building the evidence base to help ensure that well-designed and well-implemented home visiting programs can prevent child maltreatment
- The Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness review, which Mathematica is conducting, assesses the effectiveness of home visiting program models for at-risk pregnant women and for children from birth to kindergarten. Policymakers and program administrators need access to this information because the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program, which provides money to states for home visiting programs, stipulates that 75 percent of the funds must be used for home visiting program models that show evidence of effectiveness based on rigorous evaluation research.
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Designing innovative research tools to better understand the incidence of child abuse and neglect and in turn improve policies and practices
- Because reported incidents of child maltreatment are likely the tip of the iceberg, a new Mathematica project explores the potential of advanced methods and data to address unanswered questions about the incidence of child maltreatment and related risks.
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Improving child welfare services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youths, who are often at higher risk of experiencing childhood maltreatment than their non-LGBT peers
- Mathematica’s study of human service needs for LGBT populations suggests that increased cultural competency among child welfare agency staff and among foster parents could mitigate potential problems. Child welfare services should also address the specific needs of LGBT youths and their families, including effectively managing information on the sexual orientation and gender identity of youths in the child welfare system.
Understanding the risk factors that children in the child welfare system face helps strengthen the work of child welfare agencies and programs. Learn more about how Mathematica contributes to these efforts by advancing research on child welfare programs. Questions about our child welfare research can be emailed to press@mathematica-mpr.com.