Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, University of Southern California, Montgomery Ross Fisher Building, Los Angeles, CA 90089-0411, United States of America; County Welfare Directors Association of California, 925 L Street, Suite 350, Sacramento, CA 95814-3701, United States of America.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Aug;118:105136. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.105136. Epub 2021 May 28.
COVID-19 has had a major impact on child abuse and neglect (CAN) in the U.S. leading to a change in the number of reported screened-in CAN investigations, missed prevention cases, and missed CAN cases.
To estimate the deficit number of CAN investigations and resultant estimated number of missed prevention and CAN cases due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. from March 2020 to December 2020.
Secondary data analyses of administrative child welfare data from January 2013 to December 2020 from New York City, Florida, New Jersey and Wisconsin were conducted. Spline regression modeling controlling for autocorrelation was utilized to explore any significant changes once the pandemic began in March 2020 in the number of screened-in CAN investigations. The seven-year monthly average of screen-in CAN investigations for March through December from 2013 to 2019 was calculated and compared to the numbers of CAN investigations for March 2020 to December 2020. The resultant number of missed prevention cases and CAN cases was estimated for the four jurisdictions and used to approximate the number of missed prevention cases and CAN cases in the U.S., as well as the projected estimation of national lifetime economic costs.
Prior to the pandemic, there were insignificant monthly increases of 0.7 CAN investigations in NYC and 6.2 CAN investigations in Florida, a significant monthly increase 4.2 CAN investigations in New Jersey and an insignificant monthly decrease in 0.6 CAN investigations in Wisconsin. Once the pandemic began, there were significant monthly decreases (p < .001) in each of the four jurisdictions, including 1425.6 fewer CAN investigations in NYC, 3548.0 fewer CAN investigations in Florida, 963.0 fewer CAN investigations in New Jersey and 529.1 fewer CAN investigations in Wisconsin. There were an estimated 60,791 fewer CAN investigations in these four jurisdictions from March 2020 to December 2020 of which there were approximately 18,540 missed prevention and CAN cases suggesting up to $4.2 billion in lifetime economic costs. It was estimated that were 623,137 children not investigated for CAN in the U.S. during the same 10-month period. This suggests that there were an estimated 85,993 children were missed for prevention services and about 104,040 children were missed for CAN with a potential lifetime economic impact of up to $48.1 billion in the U.S.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a precipitous drop in CAN investigations where almost 200,000 children are estimated to have been missed for prevention services and CAN in a 10-month period. There are opportunities for the child welfare jurisdictions to work with partner education, public health, social service and other providers to strategically approach this very grave issue in order to mitigate its impact on this very vulnerable population.
新冠疫情对美国的儿童虐待和忽视（CAN）产生了重大影响，导致报告的筛查性 CAN 调查数量、预防漏报案例和 CAN 漏报案例发生变化。
估计 2020 年 3 月至 2020 年 12 月期间，美国因新冠疫情导致的 CAN 调查数量不足，以及由此导致的预防漏报和 CAN 漏报案例数量。
对来自纽约市、佛罗里达州、新泽西州和威斯康星州的 2013 年 1 月至 2020 年 12 月的儿童福利行政数据进行二次数据分析。利用样条回归模型控制自相关，以探索 2020 年 3 月疫情开始后，筛查性 CAN 调查数量的任何显著变化。计算了 2013 年至 2019 年 3 月至 12 月期间每月筛查性 CAN 调查的七年平均值，并将其与 2020 年 3 月至 12 月的 CAN 调查数量进行比较。估计了四个司法管辖区的预防漏报和 CAN 漏报案例数量，并用于估计美国的预防漏报和 CAN 漏报案例数量，以及国家终身经济成本的预测估计。
在疫情之前，纽约市每月有 0.7 例 CAN 调查的轻微增长，佛罗里达州每月有 6.2 例 CAN 调查的显著增长，新泽西州每月有 4.2 例 CAN 调查的显著增长，威斯康星州每月有 0.6 例 CAN 调查的轻微下降。一旦疫情开始，四个司法管辖区的每月调查数量都出现了显著下降（p<0.001），包括纽约市减少了 1425.6 例 CAN 调查、佛罗里达州减少了 3548.0 例 CAN 调查、新泽西州减少了 963.0 例 CAN 调查和威斯康星州减少了 529.1 例 CAN 调查。从 2020 年 3 月到 2020 年 12 月，这四个司法管辖区的 CAN 调查数量估计减少了 60791 例，其中约有 18540 例预防漏报和 CAN 漏报案例，表明终身经济成本高达 42 亿美元。据估计，在美国同一 10 个月期间，有 623137 名儿童未接受过 CAN 调查。这表明，估计有 85993 名儿童未获得预防服务，约有 104040 名儿童未获得 CAN 服务，这可能导致美国终身经济损失高达 481 亿美元。
新冠疫情导致 CAN 调查数量急剧下降，在 10 个月内，估计有近 20 万名儿童未接受预防服务和 CAN 服务。儿童福利司法管辖区有机会与教育、公共卫生、社会服务和其他提供者合作，战略性地解决这一非常严重的问题，以减轻其对这一非常脆弱人群的影响。
