Community Planning to Reduce Child Abuse and Neglect in Colorado

The Colorado Children's Trust Fund (within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment) sought to identify county-level factors that help to explain variations in rates of confirmed child abuse and neglect. In response, the Center for Research Strategies (CRS) created a county-level data file incorporating demographic, socio-economic, human service related data and historic information about reported, investigated and confirmed rates of child abuse and neglect. Previous studies by Colorado's Department of Human Services have confirmed that counties in our state vary in how counties define child abuse, how they investigate suspected cases and the protocols by which cases of child abuse and neglect are subsequently confirmed. Correlation analysis confirmed that reporting variation is significantly related to variations in child abuse in rural counties. Other county factors significantly related to child abuse and neglect rates were higher rates for substance abuse and mental health treatment, lower school education, higher poverty and variations in ethnicity. A multiple linear regression analysis served to refine these results, demonstrating that the reporting variable accounted for 29.9 % of the variance in confirmed child abuse rates. By contrast, the risk variables accounted for an additional 17%, with all variables combined accounting for 47.2% of the child abuse rate variance. Working with county-based Advisory Groups, CRS worked to use these results to identify prevention options for reducing child abuse and neglect rates focusing on such strategies as parenting education for vulnerable populations, domestic violence interventions and increased access to substance abuse services.