Overview of the children and domestic violence services study

The Children and Domestic Violence Services (CADVS) study is a project to collect detailed, contextual data at the state and local levels on the organization and relationship of child welfare services for children, and domestic violence services for women. Although previous research has found a high rate of domestic violence in families involved with child welfare services (CWS), little systematic research on a national scale is available about state and local policies and practices related to these families. The project reported in this article is a supplemental study of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW), a national probability study of more than 5000 children and adolescents who become involved with CWS. Whereas, the NSCAW study contains detailed information on children and families, the CADVS study uses the same sample as NSCAW to gain information about the way that CWS and domestic violence service (DVS) agencies operate on behalf of victimized children and caregivers. The CADVS study design allows for linkage of this new contextual information to the individual level survey data collected in NSCAW. The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the methodology used in CADVS, including sampling, data collection, and instrument development. Future plans for data analyses, including linkage between CADVS and NSCAW, are discussed.