The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has raised serious concerns about child maltreatment, which is known to increase in frequency and severity during times of high stress. The present study used diverse datasets to concurrently examine changes in identification and medical evaluation of maltreatment allegations from before to during COVID-19. Four sources of data were collected from two counties for the months of March-December in 2019 and 2020, including reports to social services and child maltreatment evaluation clinic medical evaluations (CMECs). The number of reports, number of children reported, and rate of children reported were used to evaluate identification. Incidence was estimated based on the number of medical evaluations conducted at the CMECs. Maltreatment type, reporter type, and child demographics were also considered. Across both counties, there were significantly fewer reports and reported children in 2020 compared to 2019, signifying decreased identification of suspected maltreatment cases. This was especially true in spring and fall when children are typically in school. Across both counties, the proportion of children reported to the county that received medical evaluations was higher in 2020 compared to 2019. This suggests that the pandemic was related to an increase in the occurrence maltreatment serious enough to warrant medical evaluations, or perhaps in the relative number of serious cases identified. Findings show divergent trends in reporting and evaluation of suspected maltreatment cases from before to during COVID-19. Identification and service delivery methods need creative solutions to adapt to changing environments. Medical, social, and legal systems need to prepare for increases in families seeking services as pandemic-related restrictions are lifted.

中文翻译：

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COVID-19 大流行期间儿童虐待的识别和发生率。

2019 年冠状病毒病 (COVID-19) 大流行引起了人们对虐待儿童的严重担忧，众所周知，在压力大的时候，虐待儿童的频率和严重程度会增加。本研究使用不同的数据集来同时检查从之前到 COVID-19 期间虐待指控的识别和医学评估的变化。在 2019 年和 2020 年的 3 月至 12 月期间，我们从两个县收集了四个数据来源，包括向社会服务部门和儿童虐待评估诊所医疗评估 (CMEC) 的报告。报告的数量、报告的儿童数量和报告的儿童比率用于评估身份。发病率是根据在 CMEC 进行的医学评估的数量估算的。还考虑了虐待类型、记者类型和儿童人口统计数据。与 2019 年相比，2020 年这两个县的报告和报告的儿童明显减少，这表明疑似虐待案件的识别率有所下降。在儿童通常上学的春季和秋季尤其如此。在这两个县，与 2019 年相比，2020 年向该县报告的儿童接受医学评估的比例更高。这表明大流行与严重到需要进行医学评估的虐待发生率增加有关，或者可能与相对而言查明的严重病例数。调查结果显示，从 COVID-19 之前到期间，在报告和评估疑似虐待案件方面存在不同趋势。识别和服务提供方法需要创造性的解决方案来适应不断变化的环境。医疗、社会、