Citation

Radhakrishna A, Bou-Saada IE, Hunter WM, Catellier DJ, Kotch JB. Child Maltreat. 2001; 6(4): 281-289.

Affiliation

Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2001, American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children, Publisher SAGE Publishing)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

11675811

Abstract

Most research on the effect of father figures in the home on the incidence of child maltreatment has been cross-sectional and has focused on sexual abuse. This prospective study's purpose is to determine if the presence of a father surrogate in the home affects the risk of a subsequent child maltreatment report. In a longitudinal sample of at-risk children, North Carolina's Central Registry for Child Abuse and Neglect was used to determine the maltreatment history of children from birth to age 8 years. Children who had a father surrogate living in the home were twice as likely to be reported for maltreatment after his entry into the home than those with either a biological father (odds ratio = 2.6, 95 % confidence interval = 1.4-4.7) or no father figure in the home (odds ratio = 2.0, 95% confidence interval = 1.1-3.5).

Language: en