The Quality of Child Protection Buffers the Need for Emergency Child Removals—An Analysis of the Finnish Child Protection System

Figures & data

Figure 1. Study design. Authors’ own construction.

Table 1. The list of variables.

	Min	Max	Mean	Std. dev.	N	Missing values n (%)
Dependent variables
Emergency child removals (mean of three years)	0.00	614.81	15.07	48.68	292	0 (0.0%)
Emergency removals after the transformation of distribution for normality (mean of three years)	−1.98	2.70	.006	.970	291	1 (0.3%)
Independent variables
Preventive social assistance recipient families during a year (mean of three years)	5.50	7354.67	135.11	538.35	267	25 (8.56%)
Proportion of completed needs assessment cases within the statutory time-limit, % in a municipality (mean of three years)	55.00	100.00	93.13	9.01	284	8 (2.74%)
Confounding variables
Size of child protection system (in order from the smallest municipality to the largest)	1	292	147.27	85.18	292	0 (0.0%)
Notifications (mean of three years)	1.03	19.23	6.99	2.27	292	0 (0.0%)

Table 2. Correlations between the variables (Spearman’s rho).

Variable		Emergency child removals	Preventive social assistance recipients	Proportion of the completed needs assessment cases	Size of child protection system	Notifications
Emergency child removals	Correlation	1
	N	291
Social assistance recipients	Correlation	.756***	1
	N	266	267
Proportion of the completed needs assessment cases	Correlation	−0.192**	−0.061	1
	N	283	260	284
Size of child protection system	Correlation	.926***	.810***	−0.180**	1
	N	291	267	284	292
Notifications	Correlation	.184**	.265***	.052	.139*	1
	N	291	267	284	292	292

*<.050, **<.010, ***<.001.

Table 3. Moderation analysis: emergency child removals as a dependent variable.

		Coeff.	Se (HC3)	t	p
Constant	i	−1.557	.100	−15.575	<.001
Preventive social assistance for recipients	b1	.001	.000	11.033	<.001
Proportion of the completed needs assessment cases	b2	−0.003	.002	−1.572	.117
Interaction 1 (social assistance × needs assessment)	b3	<.001	.000	−2.797	.006
Size of child protection system	b4	.009	.000	29.278	<.001
Notifications	b5	.031	.014	2.274	.024
		R^2 = .859, N = 259 F(HC3) = 433.146, MSE = .121, p < .001

Figure 2. Effect of preventive social assistance on emergency child removals as a function of the needs assessment (mean, ± SD).