Investigating Trends in Poly-victimization among CPS Involved Children and Families: A Study of Allegations

Children involved with child protective services (CPS) face high risk for significant mental health impairment and poor outcomes, which recent work suggests can be influenced by poly-victimization, or exposure to multiple forms of victimization (Grasso, Greene, & Ford, 2013). The present chart review study was intended to examine the incidence of trends in polyvictimization, child mental health outcomes, and caregiver impairment among a sample of randomly selected families in the state of Connecticut (N=100) that were referred to CPS during a 12-month period. Allegations were examined collectively regardless of allegation disposition. An extensive survey tool was created by the research team to extract and code information from CPS charts, including the types and severity of victimization for each child (N=238). Cluster analyses revealed four significant victimization patterns. Types of caregiver impairment were not significant in predicting poly-victimization clusters. Results demonstrated distinctive demographic characteristics across poly-victimization subgroups such as age and family size. Significant differences in children’s mental health outcomes were revealed across subgroups, suggesting a positive association between poly-victimization levels and the total number of psychiatric diagnoses. Implications for informing and refining current trauma interventions are discussed with a particular emphasis on treating poly-victims. Investigating Trends in Poly-victimization Among CPSInvolved Children and Families: A Study of Allegations