Parental Alcohol Usage Linked to Increased Risk of Child Progression Through CPS

Children in Victoria, Australia are more likely to progress through the child protection system in cases where harmful parental alcohol use is documented by child protection workers vs children whose parents do not have documented harmful alcohol use, according to study findings published in Addiction.

Researchers in Australia assessed the association between parental and primary caregiver harmful alcohol use with the level of child protection response.

In the current multivariable logistic regression analysis, the researhers used the Victorian child protection database in Victoria, Australia to collect deidentified data of all cases from Child Protection Services (CPS) from 2012 to 2021. The association between harmful parental alcohol use and the most recent case per child of progression through the child protection system was analyzed. The phases of CPS involvemenet were defined as the investigation, substantiation, protective intervention, and protection application phases. The researchers also considered protection orders and adjusted for socio-demographic variables.

Overall, 352,800 children (mean (SD) age, 8.09 (5.07); 48.5% girls, 50.0% boys, 1.6% other/unknown of which 0.1% were described as “intersex clients” and excluded from analysis) underwent intake assessments in the child protection system in Victoria between 2012 and 2021. Among these cases, 95,592 were investigated, of which 50,476 were substantiated. The 2 risk factor variables indicating harmful parental alcohol use during an intake risk assessment included “alcohol use compromises child’s safety” and “alcohol abuse.”

Across the study period, child protection workers reported 5.1% of families (n=17,856) had probable harmful parental alcohol use. This proportion was higher among those families who were investigated (6.9%; n=6621) and those cases substantiated (9.1%; n=4581).

Children experiencing probable harmful parental alcohol use compared to those who were not, exhibited statistically significant higher odds for progressing to investigation (odds ratio [OR], 1.64; 95% CI, 1.59-1.69); substantiation (OR, 2.02; 95% CI, 1.91-2.13); protective intervention (OR, 1.40; 95% CI, 1.23-1.59); protection application (OR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.08-1.25); (all P <.001); and protection order (OR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.02-1.34; P =.028) in all models that controlled for sex, age, previous cases, and calendar year.

After accounting for variables related to family accommodation, income, and composition, the associations for protection application and protection order were no longer statistically significant. Among the 95,592 families investigated, significant amounts of data were missing (38.3% missing data concerning family accommodations; 51.1% family income; 18.2% missing data concerning family type).

The study authors wrote, “Harmful alcohol use by parents appeared to be a crucial risk factor for child maltreatment, even after controlling for a range of sociodemographic factors.”

Study limitations include harmful alcohol use possibly estimated by asking family members, harm assessed relative to the impact on each child leading to variation in recording harmful alcohol use, and the extremely high levels of missing data limiting generalizability.

This article originally appeared on Psychiatry Advisor