A Quick and Dirty take on NIS-4
Sedlak, A.J., Mettenburg, J., Basena, M., Petta, I., McPherson, K., Greene, A., and Li, S. (2010).
Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4): Report to Congress.
Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and
Families.
Sedlak, A.J., McPherson, K., & Das, B. (2010). Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and
Neglect (NIS–4): Supplementary Analyses of Race Differences in Child Maltreatment Rates in the
NIS-4. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for
Children and Families.
Barbara Needell, MSW, PhD
University of California at Berkeley
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
What is the NIS?
• National Incidence Study of Child Abuse
and Neglect
• Primary objectives – Provide updated
estimates of the incidence of child abuse
and neglect in the U.S. and measure
changes in incidence from earlier studies
• Data comes from both CPS reports and
“sentinels”
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
NIS-4 Overview
• Data from a nationally
representative sample
of 122 counties with
126 CPS agencies
• Two definitional
standards of
maltreatment used:
Harm Standard and
Endangerment
Standard
• NIS-4 was the first NIS
cycle to observe
“significant”
differences in
maltreatment rates
according to race
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Why did the NIS-4 find differences by race
(according to the NIS-4 authors)?
• Changes in circumstances for Black and White
children from NIS-3 to NIS-4
• NIS-4 had higher precision of estimates of
maltreatment than NIS-3
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Changes in Circumstances – Economic
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Precision of Estimates
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
What Changed Between NIS-3 and NIS-4?
• Both White and Black Children showed substantial
decrease in maltreatment rates over time
• % change in rate of White harm standard
maltreatment from NIS-3 = -32%
• % change in rate of Black harm standard
maltreatment from NIS-3 = -24%
• A steeper decrease for White Children smaller CIs
result in “new” differences by race
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Supplementary Analysis
• In NIS-4, a SES measure was constructed with 2
categories:
-“low” (parents with no high school diploma,
less than $15,000 income, or participation in a
poverty program)
-“not-low” (everybody else)
• There was a large amount of missing SES data
that had to be imputed (44.9%!!!)
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Race Differences and SES
• The supplementary report notes that income, or
SES, is biggest predictor of maltreatment rates
• Many of the race differences in maltreatment rates
emerged primarily for physical abuse and were
related to SES status
• Differences by race were small to nonexistent
among children from “low” SES household, but
larger among children in “not-low” SES households
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
…in their own words
“Independent evidence indicates that Black and White
children very probably have different underlying SES
distributions within the NIS–4 non-low SES category, with
the not-low SES Black children less well off than the notlow SES White children. If the economic resources of Black
and White children had been equivalent in this condition,
then the observed pattern of higher risk for Black children
under non-low SES conditions may not have emerged. For
these reasons, the race differences observed in the notlow SES condition in this report must be interpreted with
caution. “ (italics mine)
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Why did the NIS-4 find differences by
race?
Imprecise SES Measures
Newly Discovered
Differences in
Maltreatment Rates
By Race
More Precise
Maltreatment Estimates
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Summary/Conclusions
• The “increased precision” explanation raises
questions about the widespread interpretation
of earlier NIS reports
• The “income gap” explanation is not yet
generally accepted as valid and is under
scrutiny
• We do not know from NIS-4 if differences
would exist independent of SES if more precise
demographic measures were used
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
IMHO
• It was wrong to use NIS-1,2,3 to “justify” the
need for racial disparities work
• It is becoming increasingly clear that SES and
race interact
• “Why are people poor?” (Undoing Racism
trainings) is a very good question, and may
hold the key to any understanding of the lack
of difference for poor children
• The work remains
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley
Barbara Needell
bneedell@berkeley.edu
510 290 6334
CSSR.BERKELEY.EDU/UCB_CHILDWELFARE
Presentation Developed by
Erin Clark
CENTER FOR SOCIAL SERVICES RESEARCH
School of Social Welfare, UC Berkeley