Contrasting Methods of Measurement in Spatial Analyses Examining the Alcohol Environment and Child Maltreatment

Publication Date

11-1-2022

Document Type

Article

Publication Title

Child Maltreatment

Volume

27

Issue

4

DOI

10.1177/10775595211040756

First Page

515

Last Page

526

Abstract

Child physical abuse is a major public health issue in the United States. Environmental child welfare research has focused on neighborhood characteristics and the influence of alcohol and marijuana establishments. To our knowledge, child welfare studies have singularly examined the outcome in terms of victims, that is, at the level of child population, and have not considered the parent population. Thus, in this exploratory study, we use spatial scan statistics to analyze patterns of child physical abuse at the child and household level, and we use Bayesian hierarchical spatial conditional autoregressive models to determine the relative influence of alcohol availability and other environmental factors. We find that household clusters are nested in child clusters and that controlling for alcohol establishments reduces cluster size. In the Bayesian regression models, alcohol availability increased risk slightly, while neighborhood diversity (measured using Blau’s Index) elevated risk considerably. Immediate implications for child welfare agencies are discussed.

Funding Sponsor

National Institutes of Health

Keywords

alcohol outlets, Bayesian hierarchical spatial regression with INLA, child physical abuse, geographic clusters, spatial scan statistics

Department

Social Work

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