Early in life outcomes of children of mothers with child protection system involvement. What factors are protective and what factors predict poorer infant outcomes?

Chief Investigator:

Professor Leonie Segal

Research Area:

Improving child protection and its effects.
Community Based Study.

Funding Amount:

$99,997

Recipient:

University of South Australia

Overview:

Child maltreatment in SA is unacceptably high; ~25% of children have some child protection system (CPS) contact and >4% substantiated maltreatment. Little is known about early-in-life health and social outcomes (low birth-weight, neonatal mortality, infant CPS contact, education etc.) of children of mothers with CPS involvement. The proposed study will ascertain how maternal maltreatment affects their offspring and predictors of better/worse outcomes, informing policy targets to disrupt inter-generational pathways into child maltreatment and associated disadvantage. The aim is to re-imagine a predicted future of entrenched disadvantage, characterised by mental illness, welfare dependency, homelessness to one of promise and potential fulfilled.

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