NCJ Number
226245
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior: A Review Journal Volume: 14 Issue: 1 Dated: January/February 2009 Pages: 13-29
Date Published
January 2009
Length
17 pages
Annotation
This study summarized the literature on child physical abuse and neglect in terms of risk factors.
Abstract
Results provide support for the importance of examining child maltreatment from a multi-factorial perspective. Studying or intervening to prevent or treat child maltreatment must include risk factors at each level of the macro-systems. Many of the same risk factors were associated with child physical abuse as with neglect. Parent perception of the child as a problem and parent anger/hyper-reactivity were important risk factors for physical abuse and for neglect. The quality of the parent-child relationship was a strongly related factor in neglect and a moderately related factor in physical abuse. Child social competence was moderately related to child neglect and to child physical abuse. Child age and gender were not found to be significantly related to either form of maltreatment, and parent age was found to have a small relationship to each form of maltreatment. Risk factors strongly related to neglect but not strongly related to physical abuse included factors pertaining to personal adequacy, competency, or resilience. Parent unemployment and family size were both moderately related to neglect and only minimally related to child physical abuse. It appears that the phenomena of child neglect may be different from child physical abuse and deserves its own investigation into cause and treatment. Tables and references