Understanding Economic Hardship and Each Type of Child Maltreatment: Testing the Temporal Impact

Background and Purpose

Children who have experienced economic hardship are 3-9 times more likely to be maltreated than their counterparts (Conrad-Hiebner & Byram, 2018; Sedlak et al., 2010). The vast majority of research demonstrate the association between economic hardship and the combined child maltreatment; however, the association between economic hardship and each type of child maltreatment is understudied (Conrad-Hiebner & Byram, 2018). Because physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse have different etiologies, understanding economic hardship most related to what type of maltreatment is necessary. This study aims to investigate the temporal impact of economic hardship on the occurrence of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect when controlling for other covariates.  

Methods

The year 9 and year 15 Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study data (N =  4,898) were merged and analyzed. The economic hardship, as an independent variable, was measured by ten dichotomous questions (i.e., food, bill paying, housing, income, etc.) at year 9. The dependent variables were physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect measured at year 15 by asking Child Protective Services (CPS) contact history since year 9 to year 15. To rule out confounding effects, some covariates, including children’s race, gender, primary caregiver, caregivers’ education, early CPS contact history at year 9, and parenting stress at year 9, were included in statistical models. A set of logistic regression models was performed to examine if economic hardship was a significant predictor of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect when controlling for other covariates.

Results

The results indicated that economic hardship was significantly associated with physical abuse (OR = 1.11, p = 0.043) and neglect (OR = 1.26, p < 0.001), but not associated with sexual abuse. Besides economic hardship, parenting stress significantly contributed to physical abuse (OR = 1.67, p < 0.001) and neglect (OR = 1.45, p = 0.049) but not sexual abuse. In terms of other covariates, previous CPS contact history significantly increased the odds of being physically abused (OR = 2.62, p < 0.001), sexually abused (OR = 2.36, p = 0.040), and neglected (OR = 2.18, p = 0.011). This study also found that Black children had lower odds of being concerned about sexual abuse (OR = 0.44, p = 0.032) compared to other racial/ethnic groups. Additionally, if children’s primary caregivers were mothers, children had lower odds of being neglected (OR = 0.45, p = 0.023).

Conclusions and Implications

The study indicates that economic hardship is a risk factor for subsequent physical abuse and neglect but not sexual abuse. However, economic hardship is not the sole contributor to child maltreatment, which interplays with parenting stress, race, and children’s trauma history. The results of this study imply that child welfare workers should assess families’ economic security along with providing culturally responsive parenting education to meet individual child and family’s needs. In addition, different child maltreatment interventions are needed to prevent child physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse among fragile families.