Attention to the relationship between neighborhood context and child maltreatment is growing. However, no study exists that considers families’ residential moves and neighborhood changes longitudinally. This is particularly relevant to disadvantaged families who move frequently. Our sample includes children who experienced a child maltreatment report (CMR) or an AFDC case in early childhood. We followed up these children from 1995 to 2009 through various administrative databases. We used multilevel logistic growth curve models to estimate the CMR likelihood at each age from 1 to 16. Estimates were limited to ages on AFDC/TANF to trace families’ residential addresses based on AFDC/TANF payee records. Our findings highlight the importance of tracing residential neighborhoods in a longitudinal study. While doing so, we identify some possible neighborhood contextual influences. These, however, are small in contribution to overall risk and are less observable among children that are more vulnerable.

人们越来越关注邻里环境与虐待儿童之间的关系。然而，没有研究纵向考虑家庭的住宅搬迁和邻里变化。这对于经常搬家的弱势家庭尤其重要。我们的样本包括在儿童早期经历过虐待儿童报告 (CMR) 或 AFDC 病例的儿童。从 1995 年到 2009 年，我们通过各种行政数据库跟踪了这些孩子。我们使用多级逻辑增长曲线模型来估计从 1 到 16 岁每个年龄的 CMR 可能性。估计仅限于 AFDC/TANF 的年龄，以根据 AFDC/TANF 收款人记录追踪家庭的居住地址。我们的研究结果强调了在纵向研究中追踪居民区的重要性。这样做的同时，我们确定了一些可能的邻里环境影响。然而，这些对整体风险的贡献很小，并且在更脆弱的儿童中不易观察到。