Focus on the first years: Correlates of substantiation of child maltreatment for families with children 0 to 4

Abstract

The overall purpose of this study was to examine the correlates of substantiation of child neglect or child abuse in children 0–48 months of age in five areas: (1) child characteristics, (2) parent characteristics, (3) home characteristics, (4) social characteristics, and (5) maltreatment characteristics. A second purpose was to compare the results of this study to the current body of child maltreatment research. This study uses an ex-post facto design. A random sample of cases from a large metropolitan area in the southwest was obtained. Families whose cases were substantiated for maltreatment were compared to families whose cases were not substantiated. The exposure of children to a dangerous environment and poor parental skill were predictive of the substantiation in the multivariate analysis. Parents with fewer parenting skills, such as the inability to effectively communicate, lack of impulse control and use of harsh discipline, were predictive of child maltreatment in the multivariate analysis. The bivariate analysis revealed additional 22 variables as correlates of the substantiation within the 5 factors.