Early Childhood Maltreatment: Substantiation related to Family Risk and Intervention Factors

Child maltreatment interventions had been targeted on intervening parental factors among risk families. However, limited knowledge was known about possible interaction effects between certain family risk factors and such intervention factors. The present study used existing Child Protective Service (CPS) data to explore interaction effects between two family risk variables (child maltreatment pattern and domestic violence) and three common intervention variables (quality of parent–child connection, caregiver knowledge and caregiver skill) on child maltreatment substantiation. Findings showed good quality of parent–child connection, caregiver knowledge, and caregiver skill significantly predicted lower risk of child maltreatment. However, the significant effects were found only among families of minor child maltreatment pattern and were greater for non-domestic violence families. In all, findings of this study suggested that different intervention emphasis might be needed to work with families of more severe risk issues.Szu-Yu Chen and Maria Scannapieco are affiliated with Center for Child Welfare, School of Social Work, University of Texas at Arlington, Arlington