Research Insights

Child abuse and neglect (CAN) is a pressing and preventable public health issue with negative lifelong consequences, including early deaths. Children living in economically disadvantaged families and communities are at high risk for CAN. Economic support policies may be effective strategies towards reducing CAN through strengthening families’ financial well-being and reducing related stress. Because states vary in policy selection and implementation (e.g., eligibility and spending), understanding the effects of varying state-level economic support policies can inform the larger-scale implementation of economic policies to prevent CAN. Yet, there is a lack of research examining the causal effects of state economic support policies on CAN prevention. Also, little effort has been made to bridge macro-level policy evaluation with community-based CAN prevention strategies. Since the Covid-19 pandemic, many states have adjusted pre-existing programs and enacted Covid-related support policies (e.g., eviction moratoria and extended unemployment benefits). Evaluating the impact of changing policies on

CAN during pre- Covid, Covid, and Covid-recovery eras can help determine how to direct economic support resources to families at risk of CAN during recovery and plan for future disasters. Leveraging a natural experimental design with nationwide data, along with a community-based participatory design, this study will 1) identify and synthesize state-level economic support policies during pre-Covid, Covid, and Covid-recovery eras, to examine how these policies, individually and in synergy with each other, impact county-level CAN report rates; 2) investigate how states’ policy effects on CAN are mediated by county-level poverty and unemployment rates, and whether the effects vary by age, gender, race/ethnicity, rural/urban status, and CAN subtype; 3) develop and implement advocacy strategies with local communities to increase access to empirically informed economic support services that prevent CAN. To accomplish the proposed project goals, the PI will receive mentorship from a group of interdisciplinary experts, including Drs. Melissa Jonson-Reid, Derek Brown, and Patricia Kohl, take full advantage of the extensive resources at the NIH-funded Center for Innovation in Child Maltreatment Policy, Research and Training (P50HD096719), and extend existing partnerships with community stakeholders in St. Louis, Missouri. The PI will receive training in 1) performing policy evaluations with rigorous causal inference methodologies; 2) managing and analyzing large-scale ecological data; 3) conducting community-based participatory research; 4) developing NIH grants and disseminating research evidence for CAN prevention. This K01 award will enable the PI to conduct independent, community-engaged, and policy-relevant research informing states’ selection and implementation of policies to prevent CAN.

Funder: National Institutes of Health 

Amount: $664,155 

PI: Liwei Zhang, School of Social Work