Attracting the Attention of Child-Protective Services: The Added Risk of Major Risk of Major Life Events for Low-Income Families Doctoral thesis

摘要

This dissertation introduces and tests the Etiology of Child Protection Involvement: The Life Event Perspective. According to the theory, low-income families who experience major life events are at risk of getting investigated by child protective services (CPS) and receiving a substantiated report. This is because the events increase stress, material hardship, or visibility to those who report child abuse and neglect. The author examines whether moving to a new home, giving birth, losing a job, leaving public assistance, getting arrested, or having a child who gets suspended or expelled from school increases the risk that low-income predominately African American families in Illinois will get investigated and have a substantiated child maltreatment report.