Trends in Opioid Misuse and Child Maltreatment: An Explanation Using Social Disorganization

Alexander Chapman , Pennsylvania State University

This study tests the county-level association between opioid misuse and child maltreatment from 2002-2016 in the United States using the theoretical framework of social disorganization. The requisite variables are procured from multiple data sources including: American Community Survey (ACS), Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS). I take advantage of a fixed effects analytic approach to nullify unmeasured time-invariant county-level variables to improve. This research extends social disorganization theory and improves our understanding of recent trends in opioid misuse and child maltreatment by explaining what county-level characteristics influence the association.

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 Presented in Session 2. Children & Youth