Teachers' decisions to report child abuse: The effects of ethnicity, attitudes, and experiences

The present study examined the relationship of sociodemographic characteristics of the teacher (i.e., ethnicity and socioeconomic status), sociodemographic characteristics of the child victim, and the interaction of teacher-child characteristics (i.e., matched or mismatched for ethnicity) to 124 elementary school teachers' decisions to report child abuse/neglect in the San Francisco Bay Area. In addition, it was proposed that attitudes about discipline, knowledge and training about child abuse/neglect, past reporting experiences, and previous history of abuse would influence teachers' decisions about whether to report child abuse/neglect to CPS.;The results of the present study support the model that teachers' decisions to report child abuse/neglect are in part, accounted for by sociodemographic variables of both the teacher and the child and a dynamic process between the child and the reporter. Specifically, the results suggest that children's ethnicity and socioeconomic status were significantly related to teachers' reporting tendency. In addition, the results suggest that when teacher-child dyads share the same ethnicity (matched) teachers are less likely to report the abuse/neglect compared to when the teacher-child dyad have different ethnicity (mismatched). Furthermore, the results support the proposed model that teachers' personal attitudes about discipline, history of victimization as a child, previous reporting experiences, and the number of training hours in child abuse/neglect also account for, and possibly predict, teachers' decisions to report child abuse/neglect. Finally, the present study highlights the critical need to improve both teacher training programs and collaboration between school and social services so that teachers are adequately prepared and supported to carry out their legal mandate.