Publication Date
2023
Document Type
Article
Abstract
Child identity fraud, or the criminal exploitation of a child’s personal data, poses serious risks and challenges for youth in foster care. Despite the 10-year history of a federal mandate requiring state child welfare agencies to conduct annual credit checks for adolescent foster youth (42 U.S.C. § 675), identity fraud has received scant attention in child welfare research. Analyzing a state-level administrative dataset with linked child welfare and consumer credit records, we employed logistic regression to assess demographic and foster care placement factors associated with identity fraud victimization among a statewide population cohort of 1,176 youth (age 14 to 17) in foster care in a mid-Atlantic state. In the model of best fit, covariates significantly associated with differing odds of identity fraud victimization included African American race (OR = 2.67, p < .001); two or more races (OR = 2.95, p = .003); and older age at credit check (OR = 3.49, p < .001). Youth with history of prior home removals (OR = 1.59, p = .059) were marginally more likely than youth with no prior home removals to experience identity fraud, controlling for all other variables.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Gyourko, J. R., & Greeson, J. K. P. (2023). Annual credit checks for adolescent youth in foster care: Factors associated with identity fraud victimization. Child Maltreatment, 28(2), 372-383. https://doi.org/10.1177/10775595221101504
