Are county-level child welfare vulnerability and protective factors associated with child welfare involvement?: an investigation of geospatial child welfare equity

As more evidence emerges of both benefits and harms associated with child welfare involvement, reasons to question widely-varying child maltreatment report rates between and within U.S. states attain greater urgency. Focusing on all U.S. counties with at least 1,000 residents (3,005 in 2015), this study assessed associations between county-level investigated and substantiated child maltreatment report rates and county-level indexes of child welfare vulnerability and protective factors. The study identified counties in which the level of child welfare involvement was incongruent with county-level vulnerability and protective factors. Findings underscore the value of taking a place-based "inequalities" approach to child welfare involvement.