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 finding that the accumulation of risk factors puts children at risk for maltreatment, this work examines child physical abuse and neglect investigations separately. Method A sample of 1,181 low‐income families was randomly selected from one state's public assistance caseload. Multinomial logistic regression was used to model risk factors associated with 3 subtypes of investigated child maltreatment reports. Results Risk factors for each type of child maltreatment were different. As the number of risk factors families experienced increased, the likelihood of child maltreatment increased across all subtypes of maltreatment. Specifically, families with 5 or more risk factors were at 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, 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 particular risk factor.