Age at Entry into the Dutch Child Protection System of Children of Parents with Intellectual Disability: A Case-Control Study

Background:It is well established that children of parents with intellectual disability (ID) are disproportionately involved in child protection. It is important to understand the pathways through which these children enter child protection. This study examined the following pathway characteristics, comparing children of parents with and without ID: age at entry (weeks), duration of the first intervention (weeks), and the likelihood of having a sibling in child protection and youth services. Methods:Population-level administrative data from Statistics Netherlands were used. Children of parents with ID (cases) were 1:1 matched with control children. The following samples were used: N = 4,526 cases in child protection; N = 3,200 cases in youth services with child protection; N = 318 cases in youth services without child protection. Linear and logistic regression were used to analyse the pathway characteristics.Results:Children of parents with ID were younger at entry into child protection (B = -176.76, [-187.68; -165.83]), youth services with child protection (B = -152.73, [-165.97; -139.48]), and youth services without child protection (B = -143.10, [-188.72; -97.47]), and they had longer initial child protection interventions (B = 34.68, [25.94; 43.42]). Further, these children were more likely to have a sibling in child protection (OR 1.28, [1.18; 1.40]), youth services with child protection (OR 1.14, [1.02; 1.27]), and youth services without child protection (OR 69.23, [30.84; 198.00]).Conclusions:Children of parents with ID enter child protection and youth services at younger ages and for longer periods, more often accompanied by a sibling. This study highlights the need to investigate contextual factors contributing to this differential treatment.