ArticlePediatrics2011
Racial bias in child protection? A comparison of competing explanations using national data.
Article in Pediatrics, 2011. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 66 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
66 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- The Healthy Immigrant Paradox and Child Maltreatment: A Systematic Review.Journal of immigrant and minority health · 2016Pooled it
- Exploring the relationship between childhood adversity and adult depression: A risk versus strengths-oriented approach.Child abuse & neglect · 2021Trial
- Improving clinician knowledge, comfort, and adherence to standard of care for suspected child abuse.BMC pediatrics · 2026Article
- Sentinel Injuries in Emergency Departments and Subsequent Serious Injury in Children.Annals of emergency medicine · 2026Article
- More than Snuggles: The Effect of Paid Family Leave on Infant Maltreatment.Child maltreatment · 2026Article
- Changes in child placement after child abuse pediatrics consultation for suspected physical abuse.Child abuse & neglect · 2025Article
- Racial, Ethnic, and Gender Disparities in Substantiated Child Maltreatment: A State-Level Analysis of U.S. Incidence Rates.Children and youth services review · 2025Article
- Discordant patterns and adulthood consequences of childhood maltreatment and foster care placement.Social forces; a scientific medium of social study and interpretation · 2025Article
- An exploratory study of addressing bias for child abuse teams: the role of narrative medicine.Frontiers in pediatrics · 2025Article
- Examining Interpersonal Traumas Across Low Income Latinx Mother-Youth Dyads: Associations Between Maternal Child Abuse Exposure and Racial Discrimination with Mother and Youth Psychopathology.Child psychiatry and human development · 2024Article
- Population-Level Surveillance of Domestic Assaults in the Home Using the National Emergency Medical Services Information System (NEMSIS).Prevention science : the official journal of the Society for Prevention Research · 2024Article
- Discrimination in Multi-Phase Systems: Evidence from Child Protection.The quarterly journal of economics · 2024Article
- Are Home Evictions Associated with Child Welfare System Involvement? Empirical Evidence from National Eviction Records and Child Protective Services Data.Child maltreatment · 2024Article
- Public Benefit Programs and Differential Associations With Child Maltreatment by Race and Ethnicity.JAMA pediatrics · 2024Article
- Risk and Protective Factors for African American Kinship Caregiving: A Scoping Review.Children and youth services review · 2024Article
- County-Level Relationships Between Foreign-Born Residents, Latinos, Immigration Enforcement, and Child Maltreatment Report Rates in the United States, 2015-2018.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- State-Level Variation in the Cumulative Prevalence of Child Welfare System Contact, 2015-2019.Children and youth services review · 2023Article
- Using natural language processing to identify child maltreatment in health systems.Child abuse & neglect · 2023Article
- Emerging Adults' Adverse Life Events and Psychological Functioning: A Comparison Based on Intergenerational Trajectories of Child Maltreatment.Journal of interpersonal violence · 2023Article
- Implicit Bias and Patient Care: Mitigating Bias, Preventing Harm.MedEdPORTAL : the journal of teaching and learning resources · 2023Article
6 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectiveCases of child abuse and neglect that involve black children are reported to and substantiated by public child welfare agencies at a rate approximately twice that of cases that involve white children. A range of studies have been performed to assess the degree to which this racial disproportionality is attributable to racial bias in physicians, nurses, and other professionals mandated to report suspected child victimization. The prevailing current explanation posits that the presence of bias among reporters and within the child welfare system has led to the current large overrepresentation of black children. A competing explanation is that overrepresentation of black children is mainly the consequence of increased exposure to risk factors such as poverty.
methodsWe tested the competing models by using data drawn from national child welfare and public health sources. We compared racial disproportionality ratios on rates of victimization from official child welfare organizations to rates of key public health outcomes not subject to the same potential biases (eg, general infant mortality).
resultsWe found that racial differences in victimization rate data from the official child welfare system are consistent with known differences for other child outcomes. We also found evidence supporting the presence of cultural protective factors for Hispanic children, termed the "Hispanic paradox."
conclusionsAlthough our findings do not preclude the possibility of racial bias, these findings suggest that racial bias in reporting and in the child welfare system are not large-scale drivers of racial disproportionality. Our data suggest that reduction of black/white racial disproportionality in the child welfare system can best be achieved by a public health approach to reducing underlying risk factors that affect black families.
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