NCJ Number
234016
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 34 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2010 Pages: 959-966
Date Published
December 2010
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This study examined whether the presence of a stepfather in a Brazilian household is a risk factor for violence against the children in that household, based on reports by Brazilian mothers.
Abstract
The study found that physical abuse, including severe physical abuse was reported for 34 percent of the children with stepfathers (n = 54) compared with 17.6 percent of the children living with their biological fathers (n = 331). When adjusted for income, education, ages, whether the child was the first born, number of siblings, number of people in the household, how much time the stepfather spent with the child, the number of years he resided with the mother, and alcohol/drug use by the mother and her partner, the adjusted odds ratio was 2.7 (95 percent Cl: 1.2-5.9) for stepfather households over two biological parent households. Unexpectedly, however, the elevated risk to the stepchildren was due to alleged abuse by the mother who was interviewed rather than her partner (stepfather). Future research should address issues related to the family circumstances and family dynamics that contribute to elevated abuse in stepparent families and whether the results are the same when data are derived from sources other than the mothers. A total of 385 women with a current male partner and a child in the age range of 1-12 years were interviewed. Child physical abuse was assessed with the Conflict Tactic Scales Parent Child. Data were analyzed with multiple logistic regressions. 3 tables and 49 references