فقر، باروری اولیه و بدرفتاری با کودک: تجزیه و تحلیل چندگانه

We examine child maltreatment among the 1982–1988 birth cohorts in Illinois specific to three categories of maltreatment allegations: sexual abuse, other types of abuse, and neglect. Using multinomial logit regression, we examine the effects of seven independent variables on allegation-specific child maltreatment. The independent variables examined are mother's age at birth, community child poverty rate, birth year, region, sex of the child, birth order and race or ethnicity. We find that, even after controlling for other sociodemographic variables, maternal age and poverty are each strong predictors of a substantiated report of all types of child maltreatment. The results indicate that the two factors combined compound the risk of being a victim of substantiated child maltreatment. This finding suggests that a more comprehensive approach that aims to lessen the economic stress of young mothers while addressing their parenting skills may have a direct effect on reducing child maltreatment.