Citation

Tonmyr L, Mathews B, Shields ME, Hovdestad WE, Afifi TO. BMC Public Health 2018; 18(1): e1021.

Affiliation

Department of Community Health Sciences, Department of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, MB, R3T 2N2, Canada.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, Holtzbrinck Springer Nature Publishing Group - BMC)

DOI

10.1186/s12889-018-5864-0

PMID

30115126

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Within Canadian provinces over the past half-century, legislation has been enacted to increase child protection organization (CPO) involvement in situations of child maltreatment (CM). This study had two objectives: 1) to document enactment dates of legislation for mandatory reporting of CM; 2) to examine reported CPO involvement among people reporting a CM history in relation to the timing of these legislative changes.

METHODS: The history of mandatory reporting of CM was compiled using secondary sources and doctrinal legal review of provincial legislation. The 2012 Canadian Community Health Survey - Mental Health (CCHS-MH) with n = 18,561 was analyzed using birth cohorts to assess associations between the timing of legislation enactment and contact with CPO.

RESULTS: All Canadian provinces currently have mandatory reporting of physical and sexual abuse; 8 out of 10 provinces have mandatory reporting for children's exposure to intimate partner violence. Increases in reporting CM to CPOs paralleled these laws' enactment, particularly for severe and frequent CM.

CONCLUSIONS: These findings show that mandatory reporting laws increase reporting contact with CPO, particularly for severe and frequent CM. Whether they have had the intended effect of improving children's lives remains an important, unanswered question.

Language: en

Keywords

Child maltreatment; Child welfare; Doctrinal legal review; Exposure to intimate partner violence; Mandatory reporting; Physical abuse; Sexual abuse