Structural Violence and Health: The Role of Child Welfare Services in Cardiometabolic Disease Distribution

• In Event: Poster Session 2

Abstract

Theoretical works suggests the U.S. child welfare system is increasingly functions as a dimension of the carceral state, namely through the use of punishment, surveillance, and coercion against vulnerable populations. Extant research has yet to examine its impact on geospatial health burden. This project aims to fill this gap by examining the influence of child welfare system contact on stress-related health conditions. Using state-level administrative data from 2015-2019, I will examine how four degrees of child welfare system contact (maltreatment investigation, confirmed maltreatment, foster care placement, and termination of parental rights) influence geospatial health burden. The state-level data is linked to geocoded county-level estimates of seven cardiometabolic disease conditions. After adjusting for state fixed effects and relevant health confounds, I will use OLS regression models to estimate whether county-level chronic disease prevalence rates are, in part, a function of a state’s use of child welfare services. The findings are expected to reveal how child welfare services, a less visible manifestation of the carceral system, shapes population-level health patterns. This research contributes to our understanding of the intersection between carceral institutions, violence, and health.

Author

• Kendall Riley, The University of Iowa