Association of CPS Post-Response Daycare Services with Child Physical Abuse Recidivism

Introduction: Provision of services to families is a tool used by child welfare agencies after child maltreatment is reported, with an intention of preventing future child maltreatment reports. Little is known about the effectiveness of individual services in preventing child physical abuse recidivism.
Methods: A retrospective cohort study was performed of data from 23 states contributing information to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Dataset System (NCANDS) for federal fiscal year 2014-2018. Children entered the study cohort at time of first physical abuse intake and were followed for further child physical abuse intakes and service provision until the end of the study period.
Results: Overall analysis was performed of 499,199 unique children. The incidence rate of future child physical abuse intakes was lower after children were exposed to daycare services versus not exposed (adjusted Incidence Rate Ratio: 0.725, 95% Confidence Interval 0.674, 0.779). Analysis did not suggest that any exposure to domestic violence over the study time period modified the association of daycare and future physical abuse intakes.
Conclusions: Provision of daycare services was associated with a lower incidence rate of future physical abuse intakes in children after entry into the CPS system for physical abuse concerns.