Chief Investigator: Dr Catherine Chittleborough

Funding Amount: $96,571

Recipient: University of Adelaide

Overview:

On 31st December 2018 there were 3,515 children in out of home care (OOHC) in South Australia. There is a widely acknowledged need to stem the flow of children entering OOHC. The potential for prevention is high. Our research has shown that while only 6% of all young parents had a child enter OOHC, 58% of all children in OOHC were born to a young parent. This project will investigate the intergenerational child protection experiences of young parents, to understand the prevention potential of breaking this cycle on risk of entering OOHC.

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Research Outcomes:

Researchers: Catherine Chittleborough, Rhiannon Pilkington, Alicia Montgomerie, Janet Grant, Jacqueline Beall, John Lynch

Research Completed: 2022

Research Findings: Young mothers with a child protection history have higher risk of their children having contact with the child protection system than young mothers with no child protection history. Analyses of population-wide data from the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data platform showed that 3 in 4 young mothers who had themselves been notified to child protection had a child in contact with child protection within 10 years of the birth of their first child.

Key Outcomes:

Young parents are a priority population for intensive family support services, to prevent poor outcomes such as maltreatment among children. However, there are few Australian studies that have attempted to separate young parenthood from parental history of maltreatment when examining risk of maltreatment among children born to young parents. Previous Australian studies have examined intergenerational maltreatment but not among young parents (Armfield et al. 2021) or have shown how children born to young mothers are at increased risk of child protection contact but without examining the child protection history of the young mothers themselves (Green et al. 2019, Doidge et al. 2017). A study using linked administrative data in Queensland reported that young maternal age was associated with continuation of maltreatment across mother and child generations, but this study was limited because children were not all followed to the same age, and therefore had different lengths of opportunity for maltreatment to occur (McKenzie et al. 2021).

The current analyses used population-wide linked administrative data in the Better Evidence Better Outcomes Linked Data (BEBOLD) platform, including Births, Deaths and Marriages birth records, South Australian Perinatal Statistics Collection, and Department for Child Protection records. We included all young mothers (aged <20) who gave birth to their first child in South Australia between 2000 and 2009 (N=7180). Data availability for these cohorts, and the use of family files to identify all children born to these young mothers, allowed us to examine the complete child protection system contact history for these young mothers, and also to follow the child protection contact of all of their children for 10 years from the birth of their first child. Child protection contact included notification, screened-in notification, investigation, substantiation, or out of home care (OOHC).

Just under half of the young mothers (47%) had been notified to the child protection system during their childhood, 16% had substantiated maltreatment, and 8% had their own OOHC experience. Young mothers who had their own contact with the child protection system were more likely to be aged 16 years or younger at the birth of their first child – 8% of young mothers with no child protection contact, 16% who had been notified to child protection, 19% with substantiated maltreatment, and 26% with OOHC experience were aged 16 years or younger. Young mothers who had their own contact with the child protection system were also more likely to have been in a jobless family at the time of the birth of their first child, smoked during pregnancy, and had less than 7 antenatal visits than young mothers without child protection system experience.

The proportion of young mothers who had a child that was notified to child protection within 10 years of the birth of their first child was 62%. This proportion ranged from 48% for young mothers with no child protection notification history of their own, to 77% for young mothers who had been notified, and 88% for young mothers who had their own experience of OOHC.

The proportion of young mothers who had a child who experienced substantiated maltreatment within 10 years of the birth of their first child was 16%. This proportion ranged from 7% for young mothers with no child protection notification history of their own, to 26% for young mothers who had been notified, and 41% for young mothers who had their own experience of OOHC.

This analysis showed that most young mothers (93%) have children that do not end up in OOHC within 10 years of the birth of their first child. However, the proportion of young mothers who had a child that had experienced OOHC within 10 years of the birth of their first child (7%) ranged from 2% for young mothers with no child protection notification history of their own, to 12% for young mothers who had been notified, and 25% for young mothers who had their own experience of OOHC. Young mothers are considered at increased risk of having children in child protection and OOHC. Young mothers who have their own child protection history are at particularly high risk of their children also having contact with the child protection system. Approximately 3 in 4 young mothers who had themselves been notified to child protection had a child who was in contact with the child protection system within 10 years of the birth of their first child. The proportions of young mothers and their children who have had contact with the child protection system are much higher than in the general population where 1 in 4 children were notified by age 10 (Pilkington et al. 2017). Findings support provision of trauma-informed support and parenting services for young parents with their own maltreatment history.

Research Papers:

Journal article in preparation

· Montgomerie A, Kalamkarian A, Pilkington R, Lynch J, Beall J, Chittleborough CR. (2022) Young parents and child protection: the intergenerational story in a whole-of-population linked data study.

The support of CRF should be appropriately acknowledged with sufficient prominence in any publications, papers, reports or articles resulting from research projects funded by CRF.

Related Publications:

Future Outcomes: