DPT/MPH dual degree student and Research Coordinator for PolicyLab at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) Christine Taylor ’12, ’18DPT, MPH supervised a team that performed one of the largest studies analyzing child abuse among army families. The findings were published in “Differential Child Maltreatment Risk Across Deployment Periods of US Army Soldiers” in the January 2016 issue of American Journal of Public Health.

The team used maltreatment reports and medical diagnoses of the children of more than 110,000 soldiers, finding that the risk of abuse increased for children in the first six months after a parent’s deployment and for children of soldiers who had only been deployed once. The risk of maltreatment did not increase for children of soldiers who had been deployed more than once. 

The research describes the need to identify these high-risk periods in order for the military to take supportive action. The team collaborated with the U.S. Army and U.S. Army Family Advocacy Program to discuss ways to support at-risk families.

Taylor traveled to the Mark Center at the Department of Defense (DoD) Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to present the research to DoD Family Advocacy Program leadership. She has presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies Annual Meeting and the Military Health System Research Symposium, as well as to leadership in all branches of the military.