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The experience of childhood maltreatment is associated with pregnancy during adolescence and increased risk for maltreating one’s own child or children. However, adolescent mothers who have been identified by child protective services (CPS) both as perpetrators and alleged victims carry a unique burden of trauma and are seldom the focus of retrospective studies. This study examines the extent to which adolescent mother perpetrators have prior experience with CPS as alleged victims and how their current perpetrator characteristics are associated with their prior CPS experience. We constructed a study sample of adolescent mother perpetrators reported to the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) by 27 states for federal fiscal years (FFYs) 2016–2018 (N = 8205) and determined whether they had any prior CPS experience as alleged victims since 2005. Characteristics of the participants as both perpetrators and alleged victims were examined, and associations between these were analyzed using odds ratios. Nearly two-thirds (62%) of adolescent mother perpetrators had prior experience with CPS. Analyses revealed significant associations of prior CPS experiences and perpetrator age, race, and connection with additional perpetrators. The types of maltreatment allegations that adolescent mothers experienced as children were significantly associated with the type of maltreatment they perpetrated. Key conclusions highlight the importance in understanding the link between childhood CPS experience and later maltreatment perpetration by adolescent mothers which will in turn help target prevention services to break the cycle of intergenerational maltreatment. Limitations and future research directions are discussed.

The onset of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic impacted child protective services (CPS) reporting systems in the United States. It may have also led to widened gaps between rural and urban communities in child maltreatment (CM) report rates due to decreased interaction between children and mandated reporters especially in urban jurisdictions. Using data from the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System, this study tests the hypothesis that during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the decrease in CM reports made to CPS in urban counties was more pronounced than in rural counties. Reports of CM received by CPS offices between January 6, 2020 and June 28, 2020 were aggregated to per-county-per-week-per-10,000 children maltreatment report rates. We used changepoint analyses to analyze the inter- and intra-region incidence rate ratios among rural and urban counties. Moreover, we used multilevel random effects models to generate regression coefficients for the associations between rates of children with a maltreatment report, COVID-19 occurrence, rural-urban designation, and maltreatment risk factors. During the study period, rates of children with a maltreatment report among urban counties decreased more dramatically when compared with rural counties. Our findings persisted even with the inclusion of control variables associated with maltreatment risk factors. Social distancing restrictions may have had the unintended consequence of decreasing the visibility of at-risk children in urban counties more so than in rural counties. Considering geography is critical to continue to protect children during the COVID-19 pandemic and as we prepare for future disasters.

This chapter discusses carrot production practices, focusing on climatic and soil requirements, planting, spacing, germination, irrigation, fertilizer (N, P and K) application, harvesting, postharvest handling and storage.

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