Introduction
Research Questions
- What are promising methods or practices, within and across the sites, for linking administrative data to inform the incidence of child maltreatment and related risk?
- What contextual and organizational factors promote or impede enhancement of existing administrative data linkages?
- What novel information about child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors can be gleaned through enhancement of linked administrative data?
Accurate and ongoing surveillance of the incidence of child maltreatment and related risk and protective factors can help to inform policy and programs as well as shape prevention and intervention efforts. One promising approach to capturing this information is by linking local, state, or federal administrative records, such as those from child welfare, health, social services, education, public safety, and other agencies.
This project identified five research groups (sites) with experience using linked administrative data to examine child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors and supported these sites to enhance their approaches to administrative data linkage through acquisition of new data sources, use of new methods, or replication of existing methods. The project team conducted a study to assess the feasibility of enhancing data linkage and analysis efforts to produce new information on child maltreatment and to identify promising practices and contextual and organizational factors related to using linked administrative data.
Purpose
The purpose of this study was to examine how linking administrative data may improve the ongoing and accurate surveillance of child abuse and neglect. The project team assessed the feasibility of enhancing existing administrative linkages to produce new information on child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors.
Key Findings and Highlights
- The feasibility study identified promising methods or practices, within and across the sites, for linking administrative data to inform understanding of the incidence of child maltreatment and related risk.
- Contextual and organizational factors including child welfare system structures, child welfare policies and definitions, the legal and policy contexts for data use, and the existing data infrastructure influenced the feasibility of enhancing data linkages.
- The experiences of the sites offer evidence that enhancing administrative data linkages is a feasible approach to addressing high-priority questions about child maltreatment incidence and related risk and protective factors. Each site was able to accomplish its intended enhancement and yield novel information from it.
Methods
The study team conducted a qualitative, cross-site feasibility study involving coding, collecting, and analyzing data from multiple sources to gather information on sites’ experiences. The team interviewed key respondents from participating sites once in the early phase of each project (within four months of the start date) and a second time approximately one year later. Respondents included principal investigators (PIs) and co-principal investigators (co-PIs) from each site; administrators, directors, or managers at partnering government agencies or other organizations that provided administrative data; information technology or data managers; and research staff. Additional sources of data included site documents, notes and materials from cross-site learning network meetings and other technical assistance activities, and quarterly questionnaires on sites’ use of resources.
Appendix
Appendix
| File Type | File Name | File Size | Methods to Estimate the Community Incidence of Child Maltreatment | 574.42 KB | Using Hospital Data to Predict Child Maltreatment Risk | 504.35 KB | Replicating the Alaska Longitudinal Child Abuse and Neglect Linkage (ALCANLink) Methodology | 644.98 KB | Examining Child Maltreatment Reports Using Linked County-Level Data | 569.09 KB | Understanding the Effect of the Opioid Epidemic on Child Maltreatment | 689.93 KB |
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Citation
Andrea Mraz Esposito, Claire Smither Wulsin, Leah Pranschke, Andrew Burwick, and Rebekka Nickman (2021). Linking Administrative Data to Improve Understanding of Child Maltreatment Incidence and Related Risk and Protective Factors: A Feasibility Study, OPRE Report #2021-251, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Glossary
- OPRE:
- Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation
- CB:
- Children’s Bureau
- PI:
- Principal Investigator