Poster #72 - The Role of Crisis/Respite Nurseries in Supporting Parents and Preventing Child Abuse

• In Event: Poster Session 07

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect are categorized as a public health problem in the United States, with an estimated 1 in 7 children having experienced abuse or neglect in the past year (CDC, 2022). Children from families with high stress levels and fewer social supports are at higher risk for child maltreatment (Stith et al., 2009). Respite nurseries have been shown to be effective in reducing parents’ stress, which can decrease the likelihood of child abuse and neglect (Subramanian, 1985).
The aim of this project is to describe the families who use nursery services and assess the effect nursery services has on parents’ stress and their children’s risk of abuse and neglect.
Over a two-year timespan, families with children aged zero to 11 using respite nursery services in a Mountain West state were invited to take an online survey once a month during pickup/drop-off. A sample of 386 families with two or more survey responses were selected for this analysis. We used the 10-item SOS-Short (Amirkhan, 2016) to assess parents’ stress overload. SOS-S consists of the event load (EL) subscale and the personal vulnerability (PV) subscale.
We used selected questions from the Access to Respite Care and Help survey from the National Respite Network and Resource Center to collect information on abuse risk, access to safe and reliable childcare, stress, and perceptions of their children’s behavior.
While most families indicated no risk of abuse or neglect before receiving care, 22.7% reported at least “a little” or more risk. Similarly, 21.5% of families indicated they were “not at all” able to access safe and reliable childcare in an emergency without nursery services. Encouragingly, 82.2% felt less stressed after using nursery services and 66.4% indicated their child(ren)’s behavior was better after using nursery services.
Average parent PV was in the low range (M=11.7) while EL was more moderate (M=16.1). A repeated measures t-test indicated statistically significant differences in both PV (MT1=11.7, SD=5.8; MT2=10.9, SD=5.2); t(313)=2.76, p=0.003, and EL (MT1=16.1, SD=5.4; MT2=15.3, SD=5.4); t(318)=3.03, p=0.001, which suggest nursery use may have positive effects for parents. Pearson correlations indicate that PV and EL are both statistically significantly related to both family access to alternative forms of care rPV=-0.126, nPV=305, pPV=0.028, rEL=-0.124, nEL=310, pEL=0.029 and risk of child abuse and neglect rEL=0.317, nEL=305, pEL=0.000, rEL=0.277, nEL=310, pEL=0.000. SOS scores may be used to categorize respondents as high- or low-risk. A one-way ANOVA comparing the four SOS groups indicated differences in the risk of abuse or neglect between families in the “low-risk” and “highest-risk” SOS categories (F(3, 136)=7.44, p<.001). Post hoc comparisons using the Tukey HSD test indicated that mean scores for “low-risk” (M=1.13, SD.345) was significantly different than those in the “high-risk” category (M=1.63, SD=.794),
The economic costs of child abuse and neglect cases during 2018 were estimated to be $592 billion nationwide in addition to negative outcomes for the children (Kilka et al., 2020). Investing in respite nurseries could be an effective and cost-efficient way for states to reduce and prevent child abuse and neglect.

Authors

• Tasha Olson, The Family Place Utah
  Presenting Author

• Audrey Constance Juhasz, Utah State University

• Kristin Murphy, Utah State University