Abstract
Violence against children is a complex social, health, and legal issue in Canada associated with poor physical and mental health (PHAC, 2012; Burczyka, 2017). Eliminating violence against children is a target of multiple Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) outlined by the United Nations General Assembly in the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (United Nations, 2022). While the SDGs were developed to provide international indicators to assess the progress of signatory nations, insufficient data prevented an evaluation of Canada (UNICEF, n.d. a). Although national, population-based child maltreatment research was underdeveloped in Canada prior to 2012, Statistics Canada, the nation’s statistical agency, has been collecting data since the 1960s. However, it may be difficult for researchers to navigate the range of data sources available to study child maltreatment in Canada because they span multiple topics. This paper provides an overview of national survey and administrative data sources capturing child maltreatment housed by Statistics Canada and other government departments. These data may inform future data collection on child maltreatment and assess Canada’s progress on SDG indicators related to the protection of children from violence. The paper concludes with a discussion of the benefits of using survey and administrative data, a new methodology to study child maltreatment, gaps in child maltreatment research, and policy implications.
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Notes
UNICEF is the custodian agency for multiple SDG indicators related to child maltreatment (UNICEF, n.d. b).
Statistics Canada data may be accessed by employees at all levels of government and academics through one of the secure research facilities across the country, such as a University based Research Data Centre (RDC), Government based RDC in Federal and Provincial/Territorial government buildings and Secure Access Points in approved locations (for more information, see https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/microdata/data-centres).
Childhood is a social construct comprising specific structural and cultural components of societies and cultural communities, meaning that there are many childhoods (Jenks, 2009).
In Canada, reserves are tracts of land legally designated for benefit and exclusive use by an Indian Band granted by the Indian Act; however, reserves are Crown land (i.e., owned by the Government of Canada; Indigenous Services Canada, 2021). Use of reserve land is set out in the Indian Act (https://laws-lois.justice.gc.ca/eng/acts/i-5/page-3.html#h-332074).
Prior to 2007, the CCHS data were collected every two years (Statistics Canada, 2016a).
This is a follow-up of the 2012 CCHS – Mental health, but also includes questions to assess the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Respondents were also asked about the relationship dynamic with their partner.
These questions were only asked about respondents less than 14 years.
These questions were asked to respondents between 10 and 15 years old.
This question was asked to PMK/spouse of PMK for children between 2 and 11 years old.
This question was asked to PMK/spouse of PMK for children between 2 and 15 years old.
This paper uses the terms Aboriginal and Indigenous interchangeably to reflect questions in Statistics Canada surveys. However, the term Indigenous is used when referring collectively to Indigenous Peoples in Canada because it is the preferred term and is replacing the term Aboriginal (Younging, 2018).
Residential schools were established in Canada in the 1830s to assimilate First Nations, Inuit and Métis peoples with European settlers and impose European values. Embedded in the Treaties, the federal government was required to pay for schools on reserves or teachers. However, because some obligations were not fulfilled, parents sent their children to residential schools off reserve for the promise of learning a trade, specifically farming. In the 1880s, the federal government became more involved and funded residential schools, while they were operated by churches. Because residential schools were underfunded and relied on a per capita funding formula, churches sought to increase enrolment (TRCC, 2015).
This questionnaire is completed by the PMK about the child between 1 and 9 years.
The First Nations Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (FNCIS) was developed through a collaboration between the CIS research team and the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society to collect information about First Nations children involved in the child welfare system. The FNCIS aligns with the ownership, control, access, and possession (OCAP) principles for conducting research with First Nations peoples and organizations (see FNIGC, 2022) to ensure that the findings are presented respectfully, contextualized appropriately, and increase capacity for advancing future research on the welfare of First Nations children (Sinha et al., 2011). Access to the FNCIS by external researchers is determined by First Nations peoples, aligning with OCAP principles (Assembly of First Nations, n.d.). Currently, data access to the FNCIS is restricted.
To access the CIS data, see the following link https://cwrp.ca/application-cis-dataset.
Due to the small number of organizations included in the sample of this survey and sensitive nature of this data source, access may be limited.
Additionally, the provinces and territories are responsible for administering criminal law within their respective jurisdictions (e.g., enforcement, prosecution, supporting victims of crime). Responsibility for correctional services varies based on the type of offence and sentence length, and the status of the criminal proceedings (i.e., whether the individual is awaiting trial; Department of Justice, 2022).
Mandatory reporting laws for child maltreatment were introduced in Canada in the 1960s; these laws define the age of protection and what behaviours are considered child abuse, and impose a “duty to report” (Mathews & Kenny, 2008). Individuals with knowledge about a child in need of protection and/or intervention have a “duty to report” to a child welfare agency, or police service.
The QLSKC is also a longitudinal data source; however, it is not a Statistics Canada holding.
Children and youth with disabilities have frequent contact with the health care system (Sullivan & Knutson, 1998); however, it may not be known whether contact with a health care provider was due to the disability or maltreatment.
In Canada, health care services are a collaboration between the federal, provincial, and territorial governments. The federal government is responsible for “setting and administering national standards for the health care system, providing funding to the provinces and territories for health care services, supporting the delivery for health care services to institutionalized (e.g., inmates in federal penitentiaries) and marginalized populations (e.g., First Nations people living on reserves, Inuit, some groups of refugee claimants), and providing other health related functions (e.g., health research, health promotion and protection). The provincial and territorial governments are responsible for the day-to-day operations and funding distribution to health care services including “management, organization and delivery of health care services for their residents” (Government of Canada, 2023).
Refer to the TRCC report (2015) and the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls report (2017) for further information.
For more information, see https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/record/policy4-1; Necessity and Proportionality Framework https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/trust/address.
For approved Statistics Canada data linkages see https://www.statcan.gc.ca/en/record/summ.
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We would like to thank the Centre for Indigenous Statistics and Partnerships at Statistics Canada and an anonymous reviewer from a national Indigenous organization for their feedback on an earlier draft of this manuscript.
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Bader, D., Frank, K. & Kohen, D. Taking Stock of Canadian Population-Based Data Sources to Study Child Maltreatment: What’s Available, What Should Researchers Know, and What are the Gaps?. Child Ind Res 16, 2511–2544 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-023-10062-w
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12187-023-10062-w