The purpose of this study is to examine the intergenerational transmission of child neglect and physical abuse using a nationally representative sample. Although the transmission of child maltreatment across generations as a risk factor of child maltreatment is well documented, there has been no investigation of whether the transmission occurs between different types of maltreatment as well. By comparing transmission rates of child neglect and of physical abuse, this study contributes to better understanding of how parents' history of being abused in their childhood affects their risk of maltreating their own children.

This study utilizes data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which has been designed to examine the causes of health-related behaviors of nationally representative sample of early adults in the U.S. between 2001 and 2002. A series of contingency tables and odd ratios of maltreatment between those who were abused in their childhood and those who were not were utilized to calculate the national estimate of the intergenerational transmission rates of two different types of child maltreatment. A pair of logistic regression analyses for neglect and physical abuse as dependent variables for each analysis were conducted to see whether being neglected or physically abused in parents' childhood were significant risk factors of the two different types of maltreatment after controlling for the effects of other risk factors. Svy commands in the STATA (StataCorp, 2003) were utilized to calculate the nationally representative estimation.

Results from contingency tables show that those who were neglected in their childhood are 2.6 times more likely to neglect and 2.0 times more likely to physically abuse their children than those who were not. Likewise, those who were physically abused in their childhood are 5.0 times more likely to physically abuse and 1.4 times more likely to neglect their children than those who were not. Logistic regression analyses revealed that parents' childhood history of being neglected is a significant risk factor in the neglect model (OR = 2.38 (SE = 0.53), p < .001) but not in the physical abuse (OR = 1.17 (SE = 0.29), p = .534). Similarly, being physically abused in parents' childhood is a significant risk factor of physical abuse (OR = 4.07 (SE = 1.13), p < .001) but not of neglect (OR = 0.96 (SE = 0.25), p = .875) when other risk factors' effects were considered.

This study provides with a national estimation of intergenerational transmission rates of child neglect and physical abuse. The result supports the hypothesis of intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment. However, it also indicates that only the same type of maltreatment is transmitted to the next generation. This study's results suggest that both practice and policy efforts to prevent child maltreatment must be tailored to specific type of maltreatment. Methodological limitations of this study and recommendations for further research are presented.

StataCorp. (2003). Stata Statistical Software: Release 8.0. College Station, TX: Stata Corporation.