Recurrence of child maltreatment substantiation: findings from the administrative data of South Korea’s National Child Protection Agency

ABSTRACT

The recurrence of child maltreatment substantiation among families served by South Korea’s Child Protection Agency has yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study explores the recurrence of child maltreatment substantiation and related risk factors using the administrative data from the National Child Protection Agency (NCPA) . Multilevel discrete time-hazard analysis is employed. We found that the risk of recurrence is greatest during the first month after initial substantiation. Younger children, those with disabilities, children with a greater number of vulnerabilities, families on welfare, father-headed families and impoverished communities had a heightened risk of recurrence of child maltreatment substantiation. The implications of the findings are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Child maltreatment
• recurrence of substantiation
• risk factors
• multilevel discrete time-hazard analysis

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. In South Korea, the public child welfare system consists of the National Child Protection Agency (NCPA) and 59 local CPA centres. The NCPA manages local CPA centres, reports to the government and raises public awareness around preventing child abuse. Local centres investigate child maltreatment reports and provide referrals and direct services to children and their families (NCPA, 2016).

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant of the Korea Health Technology R&D Project through the Korea Health Industry Development Institute (KHIDI), funded by the Ministry of Health & Welfare, Republic of Korea [grant number: HI16C1419].

Notes on contributors

Joan P. Yoo

Joan P. Yoo is a professor at the Department of Social Welfare, Seoul National University. She received her PhD at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, School of Social Work. Her main research is examining risk and protective factors associated with physical and mental health of children in poverty. More recently, she is interested in investigating health and mental health of children in the Korean Child Protection Agency.