Evictions and Neighborhood Child Maltreatment Reports. Issue 3 (3rd September 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Bullinger, Lindsey Rose; Fong, Kelley
• Is Part Of: Housing policy debate. Volume 31:Issue 3/5(2021)
• Page Start: 490
• Page End: 515
• Publication Date: 2021-09-03
• Subjects: rental housing -- neighborhood -- data; Housing policy -- United States -- Periodicals; Housing -- United States -- Finance -- Periodicals; Housing policy; Public housing -- Finance; United States; Periodicals; Electronic journals; 363.58097305
• DOI: 10.1080/10511482.2020.1822902
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1051-1482

Abstract

ABSTRACT: Each year, nearly 2.5 million evictions are filed in the United States. Recent research links evictions to a host of negative outcomes, but effects on child well-being are less studied, even as evictions are disproportionately experienced by families with children. In this article, we investigate the relationship between evictions and reports of child abuse and neglect, a key indicator of child well-being. Drawing on 5 years of block-group-level administrative data in Connecticut, we find that as eviction notices increase within a neighborhood, reports of maltreatment also increase, even net of zip-code-level factors and time-invariant block group characteristics. The relationship is driven by reports of neglect and is strongest among adolescents (children ages 10–17). These results suggest that mitigating housing insecurity has the potential to reduce child abuse and neglect reports.