Housing Insecurity, Maternal Stress, and Child Maltreatment: An Application of Family Stress Theory
Purpose: Several studies have documented associations between housing insecurity and child maltreatment. Yet, the mechanisms explaining the association between housing insecurity and maltreatment risk remain unclear. We examine three potential explanations for this association. First, the association could be due to poverty, and the association between housing insecurity and maltreatment risk is spurious. Second, housing insecurity may result in an environment that is directly harmful to the child, and lack of secure housing may mean that a child resides in an inadequate home. This suggests that housing has a direct influence on maltreatment risk, after accounting for poverty and related factors. Third, housing insecurity may induce stress on the family and increase parents’ propensity to maltreat, suggesting an indirect association between housing insecurity and maltreatment risk. To further our understanding of these associations, we test pathways through which housing insecurity may be associated with child maltreatment risk.
Method: We use data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing study at ages three and five, excluding children who were not in the primary custody of their mother at both waves (N=4,755 children). We consider two measures of housing insecurity: unaffordability and instability. Our mediation measure is constructed from four items indicating mother’s report of stress, and we create measures of neglect and abuse risk using items from the Parent-Child Conflict Tactic Scales and the mother interview. We use OLS regression and structural equation models to assess three explanations for associations between housing insecurity and abuse and neglect risks: a direct association, a spurious association that is fully explained by economic factors, and an indirect association that is mediated by maternal stress.
Results: The results of the OLS models suggest that the associations between housing instability and both abuse and neglect risk is not fully explained by economic factors. Associations between housing affordability and abuse and neglect risk appear to be spurious. Our SEM models suggest that housing instability has a strong direct association, and a small but significant indirect association, with neglect risk. Associations between housing instability and abuse risk are fully mediated by maternal stress. Lastly, we identify an indirect effect (mediated through maternal stress) of housing unaffordability on both abuse and neglect risk.
Implications: These findings offer support for family stress theory by identifying maternal stress as a mechanism through which economic factors are associated with child maltreatment risk. In addition, our results suggest the need for greater focus on housing insecurity, which, while a form of economic hardship, may have a unique impact on maltreatment risk. Thus, while child maltreatment interventions often focus exclusively on parental behavior, it may be beneficial for both compensatory and preventive efforts to have strategies for helping families obtain and sustain secure housing.