School Instruction Modalities and Child Maltreatment Reporting During the COVID-19 Pandemic

• In Event: Victimization: Child Maltreatment, Bullying, and School-based Violence

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted widespread school closures across the United States, followed by the adoption of remote and hybrid learning modalities. During this period, children’s caregivers experienced increased stress - a well-documented risk factor for child maltreatment - while reduced in-person schooling contributed to a decline in children’s exposure to teachers, who represent the primary source of maltreatment reports. In this context, I draw on longitudinal data on child maltreatment reports from the National Data Archive of Child Abuse and Neglect and School Learning Modalities Data from the CDC to examine how schools’ instructional modalities during the pandemic affected the rates and sources of child maltreatment reports. My findings shed light on how pandemic-related disruptions to schooling shaped the inter-organizational production of family surveillance and child maltreatment detection.

Author

• Daniela Kaiser, University of California, Irvine