Exposure to Domestic Violence/Intimate Partner Violence Is Associated With Child Welfare System Involvement

KEY POINTS

• Existing research shows that children’s exposure to domestic violence (DV)/ intimate partner violence (IPV) increases the likelihood of involvement with the child welfare system (including child protective services (CPS) involvement and foster care entry). For example, high co-occurrence rates, estimated between 30 and 60 percent, indicate that IPV is present in a substantial share of child maltreatment cases.
• IPV encompasses multiple domains, including emotional abuse, isolation or coercive control, economic control, work or school interference, physical IPV, sexual coercion, injury or escalation, and child-exposed IPV. Among the domains examined in this brief, physical IPV showed the strongest association with CPS involvement.
• Exposure to physical IPV is associated with higher CPS involvement:
  • Families in which children were exposed to caregiver physical IPV were up to twice as likely to experience CPS involvement across all developmental periods examined (birth to age 5, ages 5–9, and ages 9–15).
  • Prior physical IPV exposure increases the likelihood of first CPS involvement by up to 2.5 times across childhood.
  • This association is present throughout childhood and adolescence, with the difference in cumulative CPS involvement between children with and without early physical IPV exposure widening from about 5 percentage points at age 5 to about 10 percentage points by age 9 and remaining at about that level through age 15.
• Administrative data likely underestimates the role of DV/IPV and its relationship to child welfare involvement (including CPS, foster care entry, and permanency placements) due to inconsistent identification and reporting.
• Addressing DV/IPV is an important factor to reducing foster care entries and improving child and family outcomes. Policy responses can focus on improved prevention and family stabilization, while avoiding unintended consequences for non-offending caregivers.

BACKGROUND

Domestic violence is a significant but often hidden factor in child welfare involvement and foster care entry because it is frequently recorded under broader categories like neglect rather than identified on its own. Shlonsky and Friend propose five ways children may be placed at risk when domestic violence and child maltreatment intersect, ranging from maltreatment unrelated to concurrent DV to emotional or physical harm to a parent that impairs their ability to meet a child's needs. The brief distinguishes "domestic violence" (a broad term covering physical and nonphysical acts against spouses and intimate partners) from "intimate partner violence" (abuse or aggression occurring within a romantic relationship), while noting the terms are sometimes used interchangeably. In the data analysis, child exposure to IPV refers to children whose caregiver reported experiencing IPV, not necessarily that the child witnessed it directly.

National administrative data have limitations for understanding DV/IPV's role in child welfare. The Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) does not identify a single primary reason for removal, and the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) can identify domestic violence as a caregiver risk factor but not whether or how a child was exposed. The Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (FFCWS), a longitudinal birth cohort study following nearly 5,000 children born in large U.S. cities, provides another lens; because it is observational, findings represent associations rather than causal effects.

EXISTING RESEARCH SHOWS THAT CHILDREN'S EXPOSURE TO DV/IPV INCREASES THE LIKELIHOOD OF CPS INVOLVEMENT AND FOSTER CARE ENTRY, AND INCREASES BARRIERS TO REUNIFICATION

Because AFCARS does not include DV/IPV among its 15 standardized removal circumstances, these incidents are typically captured under broader categories, contributing to under-identification. Approximately 18 percent of children are exposed to IPV during childhood, which increases the likelihood of CPS involvement even without physical harm. Nationally representative data show children who witnessed IPV in a given year were nearly four times more likely to experience maltreatment and CPS involvement in that period.

The 2024 Child Maltreatment Report identifies domestic violence as the most common caregiver risk factor among maltreatment victims, affecting approximately 110,000 children, present in 27.6 percent of victims nationally, with state rates ranging from 2.9 percent to 48.7 percent.

The foster care entry rate nationally is approximately 2.5 entries per 1,000 children annually. National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) data show children in families with the highest cumulative risks (including DV) were ten times more likely to enter foster care than those in low-risk families. DV/IPV is also associated with barriers to reunification, longer foster care stays, and higher reentry rates.

PHYSICAL IPV EXPOSURE EARLY IN LIFE IS ASSOCIATED WITH CPS INVOLVEMENT THROUGHOUT CHILDHOOD

Using FFCWS data, the brief examines two complementary associations: whether early physical IPV exposure (reported at birth, age one, or age three) predicts cumulative CPS involvement through adolescence, and whether prior physical IPV exposure predicts the timing of a child's first CPS involvement. Both analyses rely on caregiver self-report and are descriptive, identifying associations rather than causal effects.

EARLY PHYSICAL IPV EXPOSURE IS ASSOCIATED WITH NEARLY TWICE THE LIKELIEHOOD OF CPS INVOLVEMENT, AND THIS DIFFERENCE PERSISTS THROUGH AGE 15

As shown below in Figure 1, children with early physical IPV exposure had a consistently higher cumulative probability of first CPS involvement than children without such exposure. By age five, 11.1 percent of exposed children had experienced CPS involvement compared with 5.9 percent of unexposed children; by age nine, 19.1 percent versus 9.3 percent; and by age fifteen, 22.8 percent versus 12.9 percent. The absolute gap widened from about five percentage points at age five to about ten percentage points by age nine, remaining at that level through age fifteen.

DATA LIMITATIONS AND MEASUREMENT CHALLENGES MAKE IT HARD TO SEE THE FULL DV/IPV AND CHILD WELFARE CONNECTION

FFCWS measures rely on caregiver self-report, subject to underreporting, stigma, and inconsistency across waves and informants. NCANDS is a voluntary system, and state variation in screening and coding practices, along with catch-all "other" categories, may cause administrative data to undercount DV/IPV's presence in child welfare cases.

ACF PROGRAMS CAN STRENGTHEN FAMILIES TO REDUCE IPV-RELATED CPS CONTACT AND CHILD WELFARE INVOLVEMENT

ACF-funded programs — including Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention, Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (Tribal MIECHV), the Office of Head Start, the Child Care and Development Fund, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (including the PAIVED initiative), Family Violence Prevention and Services Act services, and the Social Services and Community Services Block Grants — can help address economic instability, parenting capacity, and family stability that relate to IPV risk.

CONCLUSION

DV/IPV is an important factor in CPS contact and child welfare system involvement, and this brief's analysis found that children exposed to IPV were more likely to experience CPS involvement than those without early exposure. IPV frequently intersects with other family challenges such as economic hardship and caregiver mental health concerns. Strengthening coordination among economic supports, home visiting, and IPV services, along with improved identification, may reduce both IPV-related harm and unnecessary child welfare involvement.

Table A1. Cumulative Probability of First CPS Involvement by Early Physical IPV Exposure

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