title: Community Factors in Differential Responses of Child Protective Services.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  In response to criticisms of the traditional investigative model of child protective services (CPS) as adversarial, a Differential Response Model has emerged, with investigative and noninvestigative alternative response (AR) paths. The purpose of this study was to identify relationships of county-level community variables to response paths.
  
  
  METHODS
  Secondary analysis used data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System linked to county-level variables from the American Community Survey. The final dataset included 62,499 cases and 98 counties from five states.
  
  
  METHODS
  Multilevel modeling was used to analyze the binary outcome variable of CPS response path (AR, non-AR). Predictor variables included indicators at child, county, and state levels.
  
  
  RESULTS
  County-level variables (housing vacancy, child poverty, unemployment, and households with public assistance) were significant predictors (p < .05) of CPS response path and accounted for 12.30% of variability in the final three-level model. Individual variables (report source, maltreatment type, child age, race, and number of children in the report) were also significant predictors.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  County-level community variables have significant relationships with CPS response paths and impact how CPS units respond to new referrals. Research is needed to apply advanced multilevel analytic procedures to more accurately model nested relationships.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri.
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: McCallum
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Kansas City, Missouri.
authors.forename: An-Lin
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Cheng
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002649:Child Abuse; D000068216:Child Protective Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D002669:Child Welfare; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D055361:Multilevel Analysis; D012111:Residence Characteristics / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D014481:United States
keywords: alternative response; child maltreatment; child protective service; child welfare; differential response; family relationships; multilevel model