Substantiated and unsubstantiated cases of child maltreatment: Do their consequences differ?

This article examines the common research practice of using only substantiated reports from maltreatment registries. It investigates differences in a wide variety of school and delinquency outcomes according to the proportion of maltreatment reports that have been substantiated. The data cover more than 2,000 randomly sampled maltreated children and smaller random comparison samples of school children and juvenile Department of Social Services clients from one urban area in North Carolina. The analysis of school outcomes and delinquency rates finds virtually no significant differences by proportion of reports substantiated. These findings support use of unsubstantiated reports in research on the consequences of maltreatment. The article also discusses the threshold for consequences of maltreatment, the adequacy of the substantiation process for measuring seriousness of maltreatment, and unanticipated consequences of decisions that maltreatment reports are unsubstantiated.