Why Linkages?

Parental stress from economic hardship can detrimentally affect parenting behaviors and contribute to the risk of child maltreatment. The Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4): 2010 Report to Congress underscores the value of addressing families’ economic well-being as an essential protective factor for child safety. This study shows that compared to children with employed parents, those with no parent in the labor force have 2 to 3 times the rate of child maltreatment. Further, families with low socio-economic levels have increased rates of maltreatment: 5 times the rate overall, 3 times the rate for abuse and 7 times the rate for neglect.

A 2021 Chapin Hall policy brief  “System Transformation to Support Child & Family Well-Being: The Central Role of Economic & Concrete Supports” reiterated research by Drake & Johnson-Reid (Poverty & Child Maltreatment, 2014) that families living below the poverty line are three times more likely to have a substantiated child maltreatment allegation. Housing instability, food insecurity, and income shortfalls can endanger system and and the Chapin Hall brief acknowledges that child welfare is not resourced or designed to address these issues. One of the strategic areas suggested is the “expanded programmatic capacity to deliver supports collaboratively across human service agencies through new pathways accessible to families who need them.”

In most California counties, the overlap between the CalWORKs and child welfare populations is significant. For example, in Los Angeles County in 2002, about 45% of children involved in child welfare services were on CalWORKs at some point during the year. This overlap along with the strong connection between poverty and maltreatment create the impetus for Linkages service coordination.