Protective factors among families with children at risk of maltreatment: Follow up to early school years

The purpose of this study is to explore both risk and protective factors of child maltreatment among at risk elementary school children. This study used data from the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN), following a cohort of 405 children from age 4 to age 8. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that children attending preschool irregularly (OR = 2.98; 95% CI: 1.08–8.26), families with a high level of life events (OR = 2.68; 95% CI: 1.12–6.41), and mothers with a history of childhood maltreatment (OR = 2.26; 95% CI: 1.07–4.76) were more likely to have a child maltreatment report. In contrast, mothers who were married (OR = 0.19; 95% CI: 0.06–0.64), mothers who attained 12 or more years of education (OR = 0.09; 95% CI: 0.02–0.34), and family with high level of social support (OR = 0.29; 95% CI: 0.11–0.80) were less likely to have a child maltreatment report. For mothers who had not graduated from high school, adequate social support reduced the risk of child maltreatment by a factor of two. The provision of adequate social support should be incorporated into child maltreatment prevention programs, particularly those targeting at risk families.