Understanding the spatial relationship between access to early care and education services and maltreatment of young children

Young children in the United States are disproportionately at risk for child maltreatment. Previous research on factors that contribute to abuse and neglect of young children has focused almost exclusively on child and familial characteristics and/or program outcomes. Other research has examined the way in which neighborhood characteristics influence child maltreatment rates, but has not focused explicitly on young children. Using census and administrative data for 2054 census tracts in a large urban county, this study explores the relationship between several indicators of social disorganization and neighborhood rates of child maltreatment for 0-5 year olds. In particular, it examines how access to early care and education services is related to early child maltreatment rates.;Spatial regression models demonstrated that neighborhoods with a higher percentage of three- and four-year olds enrolled in preschool, both locally and in adjacent neighborhoods, had lower rates of early maltreatment referrals and substantiations, and neighborhoods with a higher percentage of licensed child care spaces relative to need had lower rates of early child maltreatment referrals. Neighborhoods characterized by concentrated socioeconomic disadvantage, inadequate resources for informal child supervision, and ethnic heterogeneity experienced higher rates of early child maltreatment referrals and substantiations, while neighborhoods with larger concentrations of affluent residents and immigrants experienced lower rates.;These results point to the importance of community context in understanding child maltreatment risk. They also suggest that early care and education resources may deserve special attention when developing community-based prevention programs to reduce the maltreatment of young children.