Child Maltreatment Research

Many researchers have attempted to study the differentiating effects of maltreatment on children. Most researchers have come to the same conclusion on what puts people at the largest risk for maltreatment. “Child maltreatment remains an area of concern for child advocates, policy makers, service providers, and researchers across the globe and presents an enduring threat to public health” (Herrenkohl, Leeb, & Higgins, 2016). “Child Maltreatment threatens the short and long term quality of life of children and youth” (Guastaferro et al. 2012). In 1962, the first article was released discussing that of child maltreatment, this was the turning point that finally brought this issue to the forefront of the public’s view (Guastaferro et al. 2012).
“Six risk factors (histories of CPS, domestic violence, mental health, sexual abuse, substance abuse, and criminal involvement) … (Duffy et al. 2015). Other risk factors within the articles include “Stressful events faced by parents (i.e. unemployment, high life stress, low education, illness, etc.) can have deleterious effects on parenting, including the development of abusive disciplinary practice” (Alvarez, Padillia, & Maiquez, 2016). “Child maltreatment is a complex phenomenon, which manifests in contexts of family poverty, inadequate, parental knowledge and skill regarding child development and care giving, social isolation of parents, disruptions in parent-child relationships, compromised parental psychological functioning, and concrete issues that affect parenting” (Harden, Buhler, & Parra, 2016). See Harden’s article “Maltreatment in Infancy…” page 367 for more detailed information as to where child maltreatment may emerge from. Children who face maltreatment in their life have higher risk at becoming subjective to “drug use, prostitution, engagement in abusive intimate relationships, delinquency, and self-harm” (O’Brien et al,
“…current data suggest that prevention and intervention approaches focused on enhancing parent-child relationships and interactions are effective with this population” (Harden, Buher, & Parra, 2016) As seen through out the articles, and with general knowledge about my own living area it should be known that some programs and implementations may work better in some areas rather than others. “A growing body of evidence highlights a clear link between parents who are at risk of maltreating their children and those who are not, especially in terms of their attributional process…Evidence available with maltreating parents suggests that parent training leads to improvements in parenting competence and parent behavior” (Pickering & Sanders, 2016). In order to decrease and help prevent maltreatment, many programs have been introduced. Some of these programs include in home visits and others include group based programing. “Traditional approaches to evidence-based parent training typically involve working with individual families or small groups of parents” (Pickering & Sanders, 2016). More specifically, programs like SafeCare have been beneficial in creating optimism. “Mothers who received SafeCare were less depressed, experienced less parenting stress, and were at lower risk for future child maltreatment after services when compared to mothers who did