Community and Individual Risk Factors for Physical Child Abuse and Child Neglect: Variations by Poverty Status

This study assesses ways in which individual- and neighborhood-level risk and protective factors affect child abuse and neglect and whether these factors differed based on poverty status. Researchers estimated relationships between child abuse and neglect, neighborhood structural factors, neighborhood processes, and individual characteristics. Comparing lower and higher income families in California, researchers found that neighborhood-level disadvantage was particularly detrimental for families in poverty, and that neighborhood-level protective processes were not associated with abuse and neglect for poor families but did have protective effects for higher income families. Note: There is a fee to access this study, but we included because of its relevance.