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

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

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

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Table A–11. Unduplication Results for CPS Summary Data FormsCPS maltreatment <strong>and</strong> CPS summary form true duplicates 1,520Sentinel <strong>and</strong> CPS summary form true duplicate 1,534Total Number <strong>of</strong> true duplicates 3,054Unifying duplicates. In order to resolve records classified as true duplicates,analysts selected one record to represent the child in the final database <strong>and</strong> “credited” the child’srecognition to a particular source, while statisticians assigned the record a unified weight.Selecting a single record to represent an unduplicated child followed similar decisionrules to those used in previous NIS cycles, giving preference to records with countablemaltreatment under the Harm <strong>and</strong>/or Endangerment st<strong>and</strong>ards, to those with more completedemographic information, to records from sources higher in the traditional NIS hierarchy <strong>of</strong>recognition sources, <strong>and</strong> to those describing more forms <strong>of</strong> maltreatment. Statisticians assignedthe unified child record a weight that adjusted for the multiple probabilities <strong>of</strong> sampling the childfrom the sources represented in the duplicate grouping.The NIS–4 unduplication team processed 30,543 child records. After identifying <strong>and</strong>unifying duplicate records, the final database contained 29,488 records on individual children.Improved methodology. The NIS–4 unduplication process mimicked methods usedin prior NIS cycles, but also introduced innovations to identify potential duplicate pairs <strong>and</strong>determine duplicates more efficiently. Substantive differences from earlier NIS cycles includedusing probability-based matching s<strong>of</strong>tware both to identify c<strong>and</strong>idate pairs <strong>and</strong> decide trueduplicate status <strong>of</strong> CPS Summary data records, <strong>and</strong> adjusting the rules <strong>of</strong> the NIS–3 algorithm.These improvements were tested to verify their comparability with previous NIS studies.Extended CPS unduplication. As an enhancement to earlier NIS methods, theNIS–4 collected CPS Summary forms for an additional month after the study reference period.Statisticans, using the probability-based matching s<strong>of</strong>tware, unduplicated the uninvestigatedSentinel cases against this added month <strong>of</strong> CPS data to identify any additional duplicates. Thisspecial analysis ensured that the study would not underestimate the percentage <strong>of</strong> countablechildren investigated by CPS.A-25

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