Aislinn R. Conrad

University of Iowa | UI · School of Social Work

Child physical abuse and economic hardship are two of the most pervasive social problems addressed by the social work profession. Despite empirical evidence that child physical abuse is associated with economic disparities, the field of child welfare lacks a national, coordinated agenda for economic hardship prevention. We review social scientific...

Economically insecure children experience 3 to 9 times more maltreatment than economically secure children. Although economic insecurity is associated with child physical abuse, neglect and psychological maltreatment, there have been no systematic reviews dedicated to the relation between familial economic insecurity and child maltreatment. This is...

Harsh parenting is more likely among economically insecure families, yet it is unclear how persistent economic insecurity, including material hardship and income transfers from friends, family, and social assistance programs like Medicaid, are related to harsh parenting. Using a sample of mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study...

Anti‐poverty policies and income maintenance programmes aim to reduce poverty and income inequality, yet rates of poverty and income inequality have remained stable or increased in 20 of 29 developed nations. Although poverty and income inequality have increased in the USA, the depth and reach of income maintenance programmes have eroded, placing u...

The high cost of US childcare has become burdensome to most families with young children, yet little is known about how childcare costs shapes parental childcare decisions. This study addresses a critical gap in knowledge by examining how economic hardships shape parental childcare decisions, along with the individual and community characteristics...

We know little about social work students’ experience with financial hardship, especially food and housing insecurity, during their academic programs. This knowledge gap is problematic because food and housing insecurity negatively impact student success. In response, we surveyed 125 social work students of a public, Midwestern U.S. university in 2...

Objectives: Previous research on the relationships between oral health and economic hardship largely focuses on the effects of income and insurance coverage. This approach neglects other dimensions of economic hardship, including material deprivation and financial stress. In this scoping review, we applied the theoretical framework of economic hard...

One in three U.S. households has experienced material hardship. The inadequate provision of basic needs, including food, healthcare, and transportation, is more typical in households with children or persons of color, yet little is known about material hardship in rural spaces. The aim of this study is to describe the prevalence of material hardshi...

We conducted a secondary analysis of the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) to examine child abuse and neglect hospitalization from 1998–2016. The NIS is the largest all-payer, inpatient care database in the United States and is maintained by the Health Care Utilization Project. Participants were youth 18 years and younger with discharged diagnoses of...

Complex trauma is a significant public health problem in the United States (U.S.), occurring in families with chronic and compounding exposures to traumatic stressors like substance misuse, intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatment (Cook et al., 2017). Yet, few programs exist to treat their intersection, challenging our ability to resp...

Objective: To investigate national trends of SBS diagnosis codes and how trends varied among patient and hospital characteristics. Methods: We examined possible SBS, confirmed SBS, and non-SBS abuse diagnosis codes among children age three and younger who were hospitalized for abuse between 1998 and 2014 using a secondary analysis of the Nationa...

There is building evidence that Adverse Childhood Experiences without early and proper intervention leads to subsequent short- and long-term behavioral, social, physical and mental health problems. Practitioners, researchers, and healthcare systems have been implementing trauma-informed care (TIC) in a variety of health and human services settings,...

Approximately one in three US households have experienced material hardship, including food, healthcare access and transportation hardship. The inadequate or unstable provision of basic needs is more typical in households with children or persons of color and is associated with numerous negative outcomes. Little is known, however, about the relatio...

Objective To investigate national trends of SBS diagnosis codes and how trends varied among patient and hospital characteristics. Methods We examined possible and confirmed SBS diagnoses among children age three and younger who were hospitalized for abuse between 1998 and 2014 using a secondary analysis of the National Inpatient Sample, the largest...

Objective To investigate national trends of SBS diagnosis codes and how trends varied among patient and hospital characteristics. Methods We examined possible SBS, confirmed SBS, total SBS, and non-SBS abuse diagnoses among children age three and younger who were hospitalized for abuse between 1998 and 2014 using a secondary analysis of the Nationa...

ACEs have a cumulative effect on physical, emotional, and social wellbeing throughout the life course. ACEs also impact parenting practices, which may contribute to intergenerational cycles of trauma. Access to child mental health services and caregiver social support are two protective factors that may reduce the burden of ACEs. To advance underst...

Approximately half of all maltreatment substantiations involve young children and young parents. Although young age for both the parent and child is implicated in substantiated incidences of maltreatment, little is known about the association between the age of the parent or child and protective factors related to child maltreatment prevention. Wit...

Harsh parenting is more likely among economically insecure families, yet it is unclear how persistent economic insecurity, including material hardship and income transfers from friends, family, and social assistance programs like Medicaid, are related to harsh parenting. Using a sample of mothers from the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study...

Children in economically insecure families are more likely to experience physical harm compared with children in economically secure families. It is unclear, however, if particular combinations of economic insecurity are more or less predictive of child physical harm. This study aimed to 1) identify and describe the prevalence of distinct combinati...

Amendments made to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act in 2003 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act in 2004 opened the door to a promising partnership between child welfare services and early intervention (EI) agencies by requiring a referral to EI services for all children under age 3 involved in a substantiated...

Child abuse or neglect is 22 times more likely among families earning up to $15,000 annually as compared to families earning $30,000 or more (Children’s Defense Fund, 2005). Given the consequences of economic hardship and physical abuse on children and society, the relationship between economic hardship and child physical abuse should be examined....

This article analyzes the panorama of published Spanish-language literature addressing protective factors and their role in the prevention of child maltreatment in Latino families. To our knowledge, this is the first time the use of protective factors in English-language literature has been compared to their counterparts The Strengthening Families...

Child physical abuse is a serious social problem associated with a host of risk factors and consequences, ranging from unemployment and poverty to substance use and criminality. Despite years of research on the etiology of child physical abuse, child physical abuse remains a persistent concern for our society. Exploring the relationship between pov...

Mental health disorders are prevalent among children, yet many do not receive treatment. Parents and caregivers play a vital role in recognizing mental health disorders in children and accessing treatment. But a substantial number of parents lack essential knowledge of children’s mental health disorders, including risk factors, symptom recognition,...

Purpose. The child maltreatment prevention field lacks valid and reliable Spanish instruments. FRIENDS National Resource Center and the Center for Public Partnerships and Research, University of Kansas developed and tested a Spanish version of the Protective Factors Survey (S-PFS). Many maltreatment prevention programs use the PFS, which measures f...

Child physical abuse and economic hardship are two of the most pervasive social problems addressed by the social work profession. Despite empirical evidence that child physical abuse is associated with economic disparities, the field of child welfare lacks a national, coordinated agenda for economic hardship prevention. We review social scientific...

Purpose. Child maltreatment is a devastating social problem with far-reaching negative consequences. The child abuse and neglect prevention field has expanded to measuring protective factors against child abuse to demonstrate outcomes and better engage families. The Protective Factors Survey (PFS) was developed in response to this transition and me...

Approximately one in five children will have a mental health disorder at some point in their lifetime (Merikangas et al. Pediatrics 125:75–81, 2010). Despite this prevalence, many children are uninformed and unaware of how to recognize and manage mental health disorders. Previous efforts to increase mental health literacy focused on adults, not chi...