Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4)

5.1 Differences in the Incidence of Maltreatment Related toParents’ EmploymentAnalyses distinguished three groups of children based on their parents’employment: those with any parent who was unemployed, those with employed parents,and those with no parent in the labor force. 58 In order to minimize the number of caseswith missing information, the classification combined information about the parents’employment at the time of maltreatment and during the past year. 59 Parents who wereunemployed were those described as unemployed or laid off but looking for work.Parents who were employed included those employed full- or part-time and those whowere on active military duty. “Not in the labor force” included parents who were notemployed and who were not technically in the active labor force (e.g., retired,homemaker, unemployed and not looking for work, disabled, receiving TemporaryAssistance for Needy Families (TANF), on maternity leave, in the hospital, or in jail). 605.1.1 Differences in Harm Standard Maltreatment related toParents’ EmploymentTable 5–1 shows that parents’ employment was related to the incidence ofmost Harm Standard maltreatment categories and severities. 61 Unless noted otherwise,58 These analyses excluded children who did not live with any parent (3% of children in the United States).59 The classification applied employment information hierarchically: First, it assigned children who had anyparent unemployed during these timeframes to the “Parent(s) Unemployed” category. Next, it assignedchildren with any parent employed to the “Parent(s) Employed category. Finally, it assigned childrenwith parent(s) not in the labor force to that category. These analyses excluded 6% of the childrencountable under either definitional standard because they lived in households with no parents present.They also excluded children who lived with parents but who were missing information on parents’ laborforce participation. Despite the effort to minimize the number of unknown cases by combininginformation across timeframes, parents’ employment remained unknown for 29% of the childrencountable under the Harm Standard and for 27% of those countable under the Endangerment Standard.60Incidence rate computations used the following population denominators, reflecting the number (inthousands) of children in the general population: 8,986 children with any parent currently unemployed orunemployed in the past year, 58,218 children with parent(s) employed and none unemployed currently orduring the past year, and 3,982 children with no parent in the labor force during these time periods (U.S.Census Bureau, 2008a, 2008b, 2008c).61As noted in the previous chapter, analyses did not assess subgroup differences in fatality rates, becausethe total number of sample children who died as a result of their maltreatment was fewer than 100, toofew to permit reliable subgroup estimates.5–2