Who are these parents involved in child neglect? A differential analysis by parent gender and family structure

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2007.09.002Get rights and content

Abstract

Studies about fathers and child neglect are scarce. Current research, which tends to focus on mothers, does not allow to fully understand the influence of all parental figures on child protection. This research aims to compare socio-demographic characteristics and personal problems of mothers to those of fathers in 1266 neglecting families. The data, from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect — 2003, was collected by workers in a representative sample of 63 child welfare service areas. The findings suggest that parental situations vary greatly according to gender and family structures. Mothers (biological and surrogates) face more issues than fathers (biological and surrogates). For example, they face more mental health issues. Biological mothers are in worse position than surrogate mothers but, inversely, surrogate fathers are in worse position than biological fathers. Parental characteristics and problems also differ according to family structures but the way those issues affect mothers could explain most of those differences. Overall, single female-headed families seem particularly vulnerable and fathers present better socio-demographic characteristics and struggle with less personal problems than mothers. Implications for research and action with mothers and fathers will be discussed.

Introduction

Neglect is a form of child maltreatment that does not involve an assault but instead stems from a failure to provide the care required. It can be defined as persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical, intellectual or emotional needs (Dubowitz, Black, Starr, & Zuravin, 1993) by not assuming parenting tasks and responsibilities (Minty & Pattinson, 1994).

Child neglect comes with significant social costs (Blanchard, Bouchard, Hélie, & Mayer, 2002). Paradoxically, although neglect is the most common form of maltreatment and continues to increase in Canada (Trocmé et al., 2005), it is one of the least studied (Behl, Conyngham, & May, 2003) and one for which the effectiveness of intervention is the least firmly established (Dufour & Chamberland, 2004). Differential research based on the sex of the parents involved in situations of neglect would facilitate the development of more effective intervention strategies, but research of this kind is virtually nonexistent. The Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (Trocmé et al., 2005) provides original data that can be used to explore this aspect of neglect.

Section snippets

Problem Definition

Research into the differences between fathers and mothers has essentially been limited to Caucasian, middle-class, two-parent families with no particular problems, to the detriment of adults playing the role of parents in families grappling with major issues (Dufour and Bouchard, 2003, Lane, 2002, Marshall et al., 2001). Aside from research into sexual abuse, child maltreatment is no exception in this respect (Dubowitz et al., 2000, Lamb, 2001, Lane, 2002, Marshall et al., 2001, Muller and

Research objectives

Our research had the following objectives: (1) describe the different family structures characteristic of families grappling with neglect in order to distinguish the place of mothers and fathers in these families; (2) compare socio-demographic characteristics and personal problems between the fathers and mothers in these different family structures (intergender differences); and (3) compare socio-demographic characteristics and personal problems between fathers (both biological and surrogate)

Sample

The data we used are taken from the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect — 2003 (CIS) (Trocmé et al., 2005), which documents 11,562 child maltreatment investigations, between October 1 and December 31, 2003, using a representative sample of 63 child welfare service areas (CWSAs). This representative sample was selected by means of a four-stage stratified cluster sampling process, which provided in particular for the selection of at least one CWSA in each province or

Results

Fig. 1 illustrates the absolute and relative proportions of the various family structures in situations of substantiated neglect (first objective). With the exception of “other” families, a solid-line box identifies structures in which there is a paternal presence, whether it be an adoptive, biological, or surrogate father, while a dotted-line box identifies structures in which there is no paternal presence. Almost half the families are single-parent families, while 38% are intact or blended

Shedding light on fathers to better understand neglectful families

The results of our study highlight some subtle differences in the general profile of families struggling with neglect that is usually found in the scientific literature. In almost half the cases, the families are single-parent families whose female heads are extremely vulnerable. Our data also indicate that men are very often present in situations of neglect, whether they reside with their children in a two-parent family (38% of neglectful families) or they maintain a link with their biological

Conclusion

Child neglect is generally associated with single-parent families headed by mothers who are grappling with major psychological and social problems of their own. Our study qualifies this finding somewhat by showing that men are present in a not insignificant proportion of neglectful families. These men face fewer personal problems than the women in these families, and although parents with partners are likewise grappling with serious problems, their situation is not as bad as that of single

Acknowledgements

This research project was made possible in part thanks to the funding from the Centre of Excellence for Child Welfare. The translation of this paper was made possible in part thanks to the funding from the Groupe de recherche et d'action sur la victimisation des enfants — Alliance de recherche pour le développement des enfants dans leur communauté (GRAVE-ARDEC) [Research and action group on child victimization — Research alliance for the development of children in their communities].

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