Child maltreatment in the “Children of the nineties”: A longitudinal study of parental risk factors☆
Introduction
It is well recognized that certain factors in the child and her or his environments are associated with an increased risk of that child being maltreated. Previous work has identified some of these risks, including an intergenerational cycle of abuse, various parental factors, and social factors. Because the consequences of maltreatment and of any intervention can have profound effects on the child and family, it is essential that all work with child maltreatment be based on contemporary and well-researched evidence. Identification and validation of risk and protective factors within a comprehensive framework is important to a full understanding of the nature and patterns of maltreatment, to appropriate work with maltreated children, and to effective preventive work (Korbin, 1991).
Early work on the etiology of child abuse focused on two main strands Erchak 1981, Pelton 1985. In the first, the psychodynamic model, abuse is seen as a disorder of the individual (abuser or child), or more significantly of the relationship between abuser and abused. This model has led to an understanding of the personalities, backgrounds, and demographic characteristics of individuals that put a child at risk (e.g., Spinetta & Rigler, 1972). In contrast, the sociological model has emphasized external socio-economic factors affecting risk (e.g., Baldwin & Spencer, 1993). This model has enabled important social class differences to be identified along with such factors as unemployment, the stresses of poor housing, and lack of access to amenities.
A major breakthrough in the scientific understanding of child maltreatment, however, seems to have come through the adoption of ecological models of abuse Belsky 1980, Belsky 1993, Garbarino 1985, Kotch et al 1995, Kotch et al 1997. The basis of such models is that child maltreatment is multiply determined by forces at work in the individual, the family, and the community and culture, and that these determinants are nested within one another. Four levels of analysis are recognized: First, ontogenic development, or how a particular parent grows up to behave in an abusive or neglectful manner; second the microsystem—the context of the child’s immediate family and household; third, the exosystem—the larger social systems within which the family is embedded; and finally, the macrosystem, or overriding cultural beliefs and values in any particular society. The theoretical framework of the model suggests a hierarchical approach to analysis, beginning with the parents and the pathways through which factors in their childhood lead to personality traits and ultimately altered perceptions and behavior with regard to parenting. Subsequent levels work inwards from wider socio-cultural norms, through the social exosystem to the family, the child, and parent-child interactions.
This research project aims to build on previous research in the field, utilizing multivariate analysis to explore risk factors within a comprehensive ecological framework. The research is based on a large cohort study in which data on the environment and health of the children have been collected at regular intervals from early antenatal booking and throughout childhood. The overall aim is to analyze the multiple factors affecting risk of maltreatment in young children and ultimately identify those factors that may protect “high-risk” children from maltreatment. The initial stage of the research has been a study of background parental factors identified predominantly through antenatal questionnaires. These have been analyzed with respect to the single outcome of children placed on the child protection register.
Section snippets
Methods
The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) is a large study following a cohort of children born to mothers resident in Avon while pregnant (Golding, 2000). The ALSPAC study area—the three Bristol-based health districts of Avon—has a population of approximately one million and includes the city of Bristol (population 500,000), a mixture of inner city deprivation (7% of Avon children live in poor urban areas), rural areas (15%), leafy suburbs, and moderate sized towns. Children
Results
A total of 438 Avon-born children with birth dates between April 1, 1991 through December 31, 1992 were referred for investigation of possible child abuse or neglect in the eight years from January 1, 1991 through December 31, 1998, and 202 placed on the child protection register. Three hundred twenty-nine of the investigated children (75.1%) and 162 (80.2%) of the registered children were included in the ALSPAC cohort. The overall incidence of registration was 115:10,000 children over the 8
Parental age and education
Both in the UK and in the United States, much of the work on risk factors has concentrated on identifying situations of high risk from an understanding of maternal factors. One of the most consistent, though not universal, findings has been that the mothers of abused children tend to be younger than other mothers. Quoted proportions of young mothers vary between 10% and 40% for mothers aged less than 20 years at the birth of their child Kinard and Klerman 1980, Leventhal et al 1984, Lynch and
Conclusions
Through a multivariate analysis of data in the parents’ backgrounds, personalities, and psychiatric histories, we have been able to explore an initial level of risk factors for child maltreatment within an ecological framework. Two of the strongest variables in this analysis are parental age and education. Young parental age is an important association with child maltreatment, although it is clear that the majority of young parents do not maltreat their children. Thus, the important research
Acknowledgements
The authors are extremely grateful to all the mothers who took part, and to the midwives for their cooperation and help in recruitment. The whole ALSPAC study team comprises interviewers, computer technicians, laboratory technicians, clerical workers, research scientists, volunteers, and managers who continue to make the study possible.
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2022, Child Abuse and NeglectCitation Excerpt :In population studies, information on fathers is rarely included or only provided by the mothers. Exceptions include the British birth cohort study Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC; Sidebotham, Golding, & The ALSPAC Study Team, 2001) and the U.S. Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (Guterman et al., 2009), both of which collected data from maternal and paternal caregivers. While ALSPAC identified similar risk factors in mothers and fathers, such as young age, low education, parental history of child guidance and psychiatry, and psychopathologies (Sidebotham et al., 2001), the Fragile Families Study described paternal risk factors such as low education, perceived stress, depression and substance abuse (Guterman et al., 2009).
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This study was financially supported by the Medical Research Council, the Department of Health, the Department of the Environment, the Wellcome Trust, and other funders including the NHS executive, South West, Research and Development Directorate. The ALSPAC study is part of the WHO initiated European Longitudinal Study of Pregnancy and Childhood.