Document Type
Journal Article
Publication Title
Child Abuse & Neglect
Volume
143
PubMed ID
37352649
Publisher
Elsevier
School
Kurongkurl Katitjin
RAS ID
61888
Funders
National Health and Medical Research Council
Grant Number
NHMRC Number : 1162968
Abstract
Background: Reducing the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child protection system is a key target for the Australian government. Objective: We aimed to provide more recent evidence on the population-level cumulative incidence of contacts for Aboriginal children with child protective services (CPS) in Western Australia (WA). Participants and Setting: Linked administrative data was provided for WA CPS between 2000 and 2015 for 33,709 Aboriginal children born in WA between 2000 and 2013. Methods: Descriptive summaries and cumulative incidence estimates were used to examine changes in CPS contact trends over time and within sibling groups. Results: There was an increase in early-childhood contacts for children born more recently, with 7.6 % and 2.3 % of children born in 2000–2001 having a notification and placement in out-of-home care by age one, respectively, compared to 15.1 % and 4.3 % of children born in 2012–2013. Among sibling groups where at least one sibling had a CPS contact, approximately half of children had their first contacts on the same date as another sibling. For children born after one of their siblings had been placed in out-of-home care, 31.9 % had themselves been placed in out-of-home care by age one. Conclusions: Multiple children tend to be placed into out-of-home care when at least one sibling is, which is likely to have a significant impact on families affected. The additional risk of placement also carries over to children born after the first removal in a sibling group, highlighting the need for further support to prevent future removals.
DOI
10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106297
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Comments
Harrap, B., Gibberd, A., O'Donnell, M., Simons, K., Jones, J., Lima, F., . . . Eades, S. (2023). Cumulative incidence of child protection system contacts among a cohort of Western Australian Aboriginal children born 2000 to 2013. Child Abuse & Neglect, 143, article 106297. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2023.106297