Despite U.S. child protective services (CPS) agencies relying on mandated reporters to refer concerns of child maltreatment to them, there is little data regarding which children mandated reporters decide to report and not to report. This study addresses this gap by utilizing a population-based linked administrative dataset to identify which children who are hospitalized for maltreatment-related reasons are reported to CPS and which are removed by CPS. The dataset was comprised of all children born in Washington State between 1999 and 2013 (N = 1,271,416), all hospitalizations for children under the age of three, and all CPS records. We identified maltreatment-related hospitalizations using standardized diagnostic codes. We examined the records for children with maltreatment-related hospitalizations to identify hospitalization-related CPS reports and if the child was removed from their parents. We tested for differences in these system responses using multinomial regression. About two-thirds of children identified as experiencing a child maltreatment-related hospitalization were not reported to CPS. We found differences in responses by maltreatment subtype and the type of diagnostic code. Children whose hospitalizations were related to abuse and associated with a specific maltreatment code had increased odds of being both reported to CPS and subsequently removed by CPS.

尽管美国儿童保护服务 (CPS) 机构依靠授权记者向他们转达虐待儿童的问题，但关于哪些儿童授权记者决定报告和不报告的数据却很少。本研究通过利用基于人口的关联管理数据集来确定哪些因虐待相关原因而住院的儿童向 CPS 报告以及哪些儿童被 CPS 移除，从而解决了这一差距。该数据集包含 1999 年至 2013 年间在华盛顿州出生的所有儿童 (N = 1,271,416)、三岁以下儿童的所有住院情况以及所有 CPS 记录。我们使用标准化诊断代码确定了与虐待相关的住院情况。我们检查了因虐待而住院的儿童的记录，以确定与住院相关的 CPS 报告以及孩子是否被从父母身边带走。我们使用多项回归测试了这些系统响应的差异。大约三分之二被确定因虐待儿童而住院的儿童没有向 CPS 报告。我们发现虐待亚型和诊断代码类型的反应存在差异。因虐待而住院并与特定虐待代码相关的儿童被报告给 CPS 并随后被 CPS 驱逐的可能性增加。