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

• The NIS–4 Data Collection Report (Hartge, Basena, Cober et al., 2010)provies all the study data forms and describes the procedures used tocollect both the CPS agency data and the sentinel data.• The NIS–4 Analysis Report (Sedlak, Mettenburg, Winglee et al., 2010)gives considerable detail about the data processing steps, includingbasic and evaluative coding; the data retrieval, scanning, and cleaningprocesses; the unduplication methods; the weighting and nonresponseadjustment approaches; the development of the annualizationmultipliers; and the derivation of national estimates and variances.In addition, reports on the supplementary studies detail their methods andanalyses and document their complete findings (Greene, McPherson, and Sedlak, 2010;McPherson and Sedlak, 2010; Mettenburg, Sedlak, Yuan et al., 2010; Sedlak,McPherson, Shusterman, and Li, 2010).The remainder of this report comprises eight chapters:Chapter 2, “Methodology,” summarizes the design and methodology of theNIS–4. It provides an overview of the conceptual model that has guided the NISapproach since its inception and describes the NIS–4, including the NIS–4 sample design,data collection, and analysis activities.Chapter 3, “Incidence of Child Abuse and Neglect,” provides the currentnational incidence of child abuse and neglect as defined by both the Harm Standard andthe Endangerment Standard. It discusses statistically meaningful changes in theincidence rates since the NIS–2 and the NIS–3 2 and describes the distribution of childrenacross different categories of maltreatment and across different levels of severity of harmfrom maltreatment.Chapter 4, “Distribution of Abuse and Neglect by Child Characteristics,”examines the relationship between child characteristics and the incidence and severity ofabuse and neglect. It discusses the NIS–4 findings on the incidence of maltreatment in2 The earlier reports on the NIS–2 and NIS–3 findings documented that substantial changes occurred sincethe NIS-1 (Sedlak, 1991; Sedlak & Broadhurst, 1996). In the interests of brevity, simplicity, and clarity,this NIS–4 report gives priority to the more recent changes in incidence.1–5