Child, parent and contextual factors associated with child protection system involvement and child maltreatment in the family: A rapid evidence review

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect in the home is a prevalent and significant issue in Australia. Recent findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study revealed that 62.2 per cent of participants had experienced at least one type of maltreatment during childhood, with most reporting multi-type maltreatment. This rapid evidence review was aimed at understanding factors associated with child abuse and neglect in the family context. Results from the included studies indicated that there is a complex interplay between various child-related factors, parent or family characteristics and contextual factors in understanding child maltreatment. Implications for a reliance on proxy measures of child maltreatment, including involvement with child protection systems, are also considered. A key finding across the included studies was that parent characteristics were consistently identified and should be a key target for prevention. Further research is needed to explore the role of parenting capacity and skills in the prevention of harm, the intersection between associated factors, how protective factors and strength-based approaches can inform prevention efforts and how policies and practices can be designed to appropriately address this issue.<br><br> Our review has shed new light on the common factors for child maltreatment in the home. Supports are needed for parents to address their capacity and skills, and deal with the challenges in their lives—including substance abuse, domestic and family violence, mental illness, disability, being young parents or going through separation/divorce. The evidence suggests that to reduce the rates of child maltreatment, we must address environmental conditions including housing instability, income loss and hardship or disadvantage. Public health research shows that the best way to address these issues—including access to services and support; financial supports; older age of mother at first child's birth; parent–child attachment; and positive family relationships (including intergenerationally)—is to deliver evidence-based supports for parents across the population in non-stigmatising ways and to have a focus on building strengths in communities.<br><br>

Further research is needed to understand the drivers and reinforcing factors underpinning child maltreatment and the interplay between these varying elements. Policymakers and service providers need to know more about what influences the development of parenting capacity and skills and what factors might negatively impact this (for example, key contextual and structural factors such as socioeconomic disadvantage, housing instability, social isolation, lack of service provision, natural disaster and community violence). Parenting skill-development interventions need to be translated to meet the needs of specific cohorts and that can be taken to scale. Finally, further research and primary prevention strategy development must consider the gendered nature of some forms of violence (particularly inter-partner violence) and structural forms of discrimination and gendered social norms that focus our attention in particular ways (e.g., the intersection between the unequal parenting and carer roles that women occupy within a family context and the level of child neglect attributed to them). Given that the most consistently identified factors across the available research related to parent characteristics, we must focus attention on parenting, parents' support and structural factors affecting the capacity of parents if we are to be successful in implementing strategies for the primary prevention of child maltreatment in the home.