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

CPS SCREENING POLICIES STUDY (SPS) The CPS Screening Policies Study (SPS) is a NIS–4 supplementary study, designedto aid in interpreting the main study findings. The NIS–4 main study provides estimates of thenumbers and percentages of maltreated children who were investigated by CPS. However,children who were not investigated represent an enigma to the NIS because it is not possible tosay whether they were not reported to CPS or whether they were reported to CPS but notinvestigated because they did not fit the agency’s screening criteria. The policy implications ofthese alternative situations are quite different. This supplementary study obtained detailedinformation about CPS screening criteria to illuminate the main study findings.The NIS–3 included a limited precursor to SPS: a brief questionnaire that examinedgeneral CPS agency policies and practices. Analyses that examined relationships betweenresponses on this survey and patterns in the NIS–3 main study data suggested the value of furtherdeveloping this strategy for the NIS–4. Two pilot studies during the NIS–4 Planning Projecthelped to shape the final SPS design and content.The SPS included two phases. Phase I entailed conducting the survey itself, as anindependent study to characterize CPS screening criteria in the United States at the time of theNIS–4. This involved telephone interviews with intake/screening supervisors (or their delegates)in participating NIS–4 CPS agencies and analyzing those data to provide national estimates ofthe percentages of local CPS agencies that apply different screening criteria to specificallegations of abuse or neglect. In Phase II, coders applied the SPS screening criteria to theuninvestigated children in the NIS–4 main study to decide whether the criteria in theirjurisdiction would have screened these children in for CPS investigation during the NIS–4 studyperiod.Phase I. The interview instrument used for Phase I data collection consists of 60vignettes, each reflecting one of the forms of maltreatment in the refined NIS–4 maltreatmenttypology. All of the vignettes described the child’s parent as the alleged perpetrator anddescribed circumstances of maltreatment and outcomes to the child that would qualify thescenario as countable under the NIS–4 Harm Standard. After each vignette was a series ofquestions asking whether the agency would• accept the case described for CPS investigation,A-32