title: How child protective services investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect in sexual abuse cases.
abstract: The purpose of this study was to determine how Child Protective Services (CPS) investigators decide to substantiate mothers for failure-to-protect from sexual abuse. A case-comparison study was used to compare 31 mothers who were and 62 mothers who were not substantiated for failure-to-protect by CPS. The multivariate analysis showed that mothers who did not consistently believe the sexual abuse occurred and who did not consistently act protectively were more likely to be substantiated. In addition, if they knew about the abuse from more than one source were less supportive of the children; and had a substance abuse problem, a mental health problem or were being battered, then they were more likely to be substantiated. Investigators appear to apply criteria consistently to substantiate mothers. doi:10.1300/J070v15n04_04.
authors.affiliation: School of Social Work, University of Iowa, Iowa City 52242, USA. carol-coohey@uiowa.edu
authors.forename: Carol
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Coohey
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002648:Child; D002650:Child Abuse, Sexual / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000517:prevention & control* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002655:Child Custody / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002669:Child Welfare / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D007722:Health Knowledge, Attitudes, Practice; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008960:Models, Psychological; D009034:Mother-Child Relations; D009035:Mothers / Q000523:psychology; D015999:Multivariate Analysis; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States