Risk and Protective Factors regarding Child Neglect: Differences among Immigrant and Italian Parents

Abstract

ABSTRACT Risk and protective factors regarding child neglect and maltreatment among immigrant families as well as families who live in their native country are widely studied. However, differences in risk and protective factors for child neglect among immigrant parents and Italian ones living in Italy have been less studied. The aim of this study is to investigate eventual differences, in cases of child neglect, between risk and protective factors in Italian and immigrant parents. This study uses retrospective data and included 141 mothers (70 immigrants and 71 Italians) and 130 fathers (61 immigrants and 69 Italians). The data for this study was attained through the submission of the Risk and Protective Factors Protocol. Italian and immigrant fathers and mothers had different combinations of these factors for child neglect. In particular immigrant mothers are more represented by risk factors such as chronic poverty, lack of social integration, distrust of social rules and institutions, approval of corporal punishments as educational practice and social deviance were the most common risk factors, whereas among Italian mothers, risk factors such as separation anxiety, and child physical disease, and disorder at birth were more common. Furthermore, immigrant fathers were more likely to approve of corporal punishment as educational practice, whereas Italian fathers were more likely to exhibit the proximal risk factor compensation syndrome.