Individual and Cumulative Risks for Child Abuse and Neglect

• Published date: 01 April 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fare.12310
• Author: Kathryn Maguire‐Jack,Mi‐Youn Yang
• Date: 01 April 2018

M-Y Y Louisiana State University

K M-J Ohio State University

Individual and Cumulative Risks for Child Abuse

and Neglect

Objective: The present study investigated

whether risk factors vary by subtypes of child

maltreatment investigations, with particular

attention to the role of cumulative risks affecting

child maltreatment.

Background: Building and expanding on prior

work nding that the accumulation of risk fac-

tors puts children at risk for maltreatment, this

work examines child physical abuse and neglect

investigations separately.

Method: A sample of 1,181 low-income fam-

ilies was randomly selected from one state’s

public assistance caseload. Multinomial logistic

regression was used to model risk factors asso-

ciated with 3 subtypes of investigated child mal-

treatment reports.

Results: Risk factors for each type of child mal-

treatment were different. As the number of risk

factors families experienced increased, the like-

lihood of child maltreatment increasedacross all

subtypes of maltreatment. Specically, families

with 5 or more risk factors wereat greater risk of

maltreatment than families with 2 or fewer risk

factors.

Conclusion: The threshold effect of cumulative

risks demonstrates that families may be able

to tolerate a moderate number of risk factors;

however, beyond a certain number of risks,

School of Social Work, 209 Huey P. Long Field House,

Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA 70803-2804

(myyang7@gmail.com).

Key Words: child abuse, child neglect, cumulative risk.

families may not be able to cope adequately

with the stress, and the likelihood of maltreating

their children dramatically increases.

Implications: To alleviate child maltreatment,

prevention programs need to address diverse

risks simultaneously, rather than focus on a par-

ticular risk factor.

In 2014, an estimated 6.6 million children in the

United States were reported to Child Protective

Services (CPS), 3.2 million children received

an investigation or assessment following the

report of child maltreatment, and about 702,000

children were found to be victims of child

maltreatment (U.S. Department of Health and

Human Services, 2016). During the same year,

CPS agencies provided 1.3 million children

with services after a report of child maltreat-

ment, including both in-home and foster care

services (U.S. Department of Health and Human

Services, 2016). Furthermore, 2.9 million chil-

dren received services, such as home-visiting

programs or childcare services, that aimed

to prevent child maltreatment (U.S. Depart-

ment of Health and Human Services, 2016).

To provide these prevention and postresponse

services, states spent $29 billion in state scal

year 2014 (Rosinsky & Connelly, 2016). Child

maltreatment has both short- and long-term

consequences for a child’s development, aca-

demic achievement, delinquency, substance

abuse, and mental and physical health and has

been associated with chronic victimization,

perpetration of violence, and unemployment

Family Relations 67 (April 2018): 287–301 287

DOI:10.1111/fare.12310