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Preventing child neglect with the U.S. economic safety net
Slack, K. S., Grinnell-Davis, C., Sintim, D., & Ko, A. (2023). Preventing child neglect with the U.S. economic safety net. In K. Briar-Lawson, P. Day, & L. Azzi-Lessing (Eds.), Child neglect, inequity, & poverty: Contextual issues and implications (pp. 43-92). CWLA Press. https://community.cwla.org/store/viewproduct.aspx?id=21971070
Most of the child maltreatment prevention efforts in the United States have focused on the parent, caregiver, or family as the target of change, but effects tend to be small or moderate and most of these programs occur in localized regions, rather than at scale. We argue that systems-level changes are needed to significantly move the needle on reducing child maltreatment and child neglect, specifically. What such changes entail remains unclear. In this chapter, a review of the literature on the role of poverty and economic hardship in the etiology of child maltreatment is provided, findings specific to child neglect are highlighted, and different approaches to leveraging the U.S. social welfare safety net as a child maltreatment prevention tool are presented and discussed.
