IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v139y2022ics0190740922001943.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The overrepresentation of First Nations children in the Ontario child welfare system: A call for systemic change

Author

Listed:
  • Quinn, Ashley
  • Fallon, Barbara
  • Joh-Carnella, Nicolette
  • Saint-Girons, Marie

Abstract

First Nations children are overrepresented in the Canadian child welfare system as a result of generations of colonial practices that have systematically separated First Nations children from their families. In recent years in Ontario and Canada, changes to policies and practice guidelines have been aimed at ameliorating outcomes for First Nations children and families involved with the child welfare system. Given the significant changes made to policy and practice between the 2013 and 2018 cycles of the Ontario Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (OIS), this paper examines if the disparities in child welfare service dispositions persisted for First Nations children between study cycles. Secondary analyses of the OIS-2013 and OIS-2018 were conducted. Descriptive information on investigations involving First Nations children in Ontario in 2018 is presented along with two logistic regressions predicting placement in 2013 and 2018. When controlling for child, caregiver, household, and investigation characteristics, investigations involving First Nations children were approximately two times as likely to result in an out-of-home placement compared to investigations involving white children in both 2013 and 2018. Despite significant policy and practice changes that were implemented in the intervening five years between study cycles, the disparity in placement rates documented in Ontario in 2013 remained in 2018. Systemic re-structuring of Ontario child welfare is required to address this overrepresentation, and the existing forensic investigation model needs to be replaced with a more supportive, community-based, and prevention-focused model.

Suggested Citation

  • Quinn, Ashley & Fallon, Barbara & Joh-Carnella, Nicolette & Saint-Girons, Marie, 2022. "The overrepresentation of First Nations children in the Ontario child welfare system: A call for systemic change," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:139:y:2022:i:c:s0190740922001943
    DOI: 10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106558
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190740922001943
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.childyouth.2022.106558?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Johanna Caldwell & Vandna Sinha, 2020. "(Re) Conceptualizing Neglect: Considering the Overrepresentation of Indigenous Children in Child Welfare Systems in Canada," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 13(2), pages 481-512, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Grégoire-Labrecque, Geneviève & Lafantaisie, Vicky & Trocmé, Nico & Lacharité, Carl & Li, Patricia & Audet, Geneviève & Sullivan, Richard & Ruiz-Casares, Mónica, 2020. "‘Are We Talking as Professionals or as Parents?’ Complementary views on supervisory neglect among professionals working with families in Quebec, Canada," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 118(C).
    2. Waubanascum, Cary & Haight, Wendy & Glesener, David & Day, Priscilla & Bussey, Brenda & Nichols, Karen, 2022. "The center for regional and tribal child welfare studies: Students’ experiences of an Anishinaabe-centered social work education program," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    3. Kimberly Matheson & Ann Seymour & Jyllenna Landry & Katelyn Ventura & Emily Arsenault & Hymie Anisman, 2022. "Canada’s Colonial Genocide of Indigenous Peoples: A Review of the Psychosocial and Neurobiological Processes Linking Trauma and Intergenerational Outcomes," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(11), pages 1-28, May.
    4. Cullen, Greggory J., 2023. "Examining the risk and predictive factors for substance use and mental health among indigenous youth in out-of-home care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 150(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:139:y:2022:i:c:s0190740922001943. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.