Is there an additional effect on the risk of entry into out-of-home care from having parent(s) born outside of Europe in cases of alleged physical child abuse? – findings from Sweden

ABSTRACT

Children to immigrants are over-represented in Sweden’s out-of-home care (OHC) population. The driving forces behind this over-representation have not been sufficiently researched. This study’s objective was (1) to investigate if having parent(s) born outside of Europe has an additional effect on the risk of entry into OHC in cases of alleged parental physical violence against children, and (2) to discuss potential empirical support for the risk model and the bias model for explaining the over-representation. The data for this study consisted of case-file data abstracted from 132 child-welfare investigations concluded with some form of intervention by Stockholm City in 2014. By using an interaction term in a logistic regression model, it was estimated that having parent(s) born outside of Europe had no additional effect on the risk of entry into OHC in these cases, i.e. the interaction effect was insignificant, OR = 1.302, 95% CI [0.345, 4.919]. The result was adjusted for sex, age, poverty, and lone parenting. Hence, discrimination in these cases does not seem to be a substantial driving force behind the over-representation. Instead, it may be driven by disparities in exposures to common risk factors for child abuse and neglect. Poverty, poor housing conditions are of high relevance for Stockholm City. Policymakers are advised to close the gap in living conditions between Swedish and foreign-born people in the country.

KEYWORDS:

• Out-of-home care
• child-welfare services
• child protection
• placement decisions
• discrimination
• Sweden

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.