Do We Care Enough About Child Maltreatment?—Analyzing Social Media Discourse on Child Maltreatment in the United States

Sentiment expressions related to child maltreatment (CM) in public discourse are influenced by demographic, economic, and cultural factors and individual characteristics. Using 188,429 geotagged CM-related tweets during 2018–2022, we explored public sentiment expression about CM across the contiguous U.S. We applied multiscale geographically weighted regression (MGWR) to examine how contextual factors relate to the percentage of CM-related tweets with negative sentiment at the county level, revealing the spatial heterogeneity and varying geographic scales of these associations. Counties with higher male-to-female ratios and lower education levels tended to express negative sentiment in CM-related tweets, with consistent patterns observed nationwide. Five factors exhibited spatially varying associations by U.S. region, with higher levels of negative sentiment in the following contexts: a lower percentage of residents living in group quarters or a higher percentage of same-sex couples (Eastern and Central); fewer households lacking broadband access (Central); a higher percentage of single-parent households (New England and Southern Mississippi River); and areas where professionals are mandated to report CM (Great Lakes and Southern Appalachian Mountains). This study provides critical insights for policymakers to adjust policies, educators to design focused interventions, and the public to raise CM awareness. The methodology also provides a valuable framework for investigating public discourse on other social issues.