Social Mechanisms of Child Physical Abuse and Neglect
Component Director: Bridget Freisthler

In 2006, over 1,400,000 children were reported to child welfare agencies as suffering from maltreatment in the U.S., about 226,000 of those occurring within California. Nationally, about 510,000 children lived in foster care. General population estimates of physical abuse and neglect suggest that the actual rates of child maltreatment are likely to be much higher. The direct and indirect costs of child maltreatment have been estimated at $258 million each day, or $94 billion a year.  Ultimately, the most detrimental effects are to children who are at greater risk for juvenile delinquency, arrests for violent crime, and alcohol and drug abuse.

The vast majority of research on child physical abuse and neglect has traditionally focused on the psychological and social characteristics of parents and caretakers that lead to child maltreatment.  This study examines how characteristics of the neighborhood environment, along with those psychological and social factors, place children at greater risk of being abused or neglected.

Alcohol appears to play a key role in child maltreatment.  Sixty percent of young parents (aged 18-28) who reported being investigated by social services for “how they cared for their child(ren)” also reported heavy drinking in the past year, compared to only 40% of parents who said they had not been investigated by social services. Well over half of these parents who reported slapping, kicking, or hitting their child in the past year were also heavy drinkers compared to only 38% who did not report those behaviors.  This study will examine aspects of the neighborhood environments in which families are raising their children as they affect alcohol misuse and child abuse and neglect.  Specifically, we will study how the number and location of places that sell alcohol and the use of these places by parents has an effect on child maltreatment. 

Previous research has shown that families that live in neighborhoods that have many liquor stores or bars or other alcohol outlets close together (outlet density) are more likely to have problems with child abuse and neglect.  Why does this occur?  What specific neighborhood or family characteristics lead to more or less abuse and neglect?  This study will explore these issues.

The study has two components:

• We will study official reports of child maltreatment to increase our understanding of how changing neighborhood conditions and alcohol outlet densities affect reports of child maltreatment over a nine year period (1998 – 2006).  
• We will carry out a telephone survey of 3,000 parents with children (ages ranging from birth to 12) sampled randomly from 50 communities across the state of California.  This survey of the general population of parents will help us to understand child maltreatment that is not reported to the child welfare system.  Specifically we will be asking parents about their alcohol use, where the drink alcohol, the type of support they receive, and their parenting behaviors.

The short term goal of the study is to develop a greater understanding of the ways in which neighborhood characteristics and the location, number, and parental use of alcohol outlets affect how parents treat their children.  This study will go beyond the focus on the behavior of individual families to address how the larger environment affects the behavior of parents. 

Findings from this study can be used to develop prevention activities aimed at families living in high risk neighborhoods.  The findings can also be used to help change neighborhood conditions in ways that can create and sustain safer environments for children.