Citation

Bolton FG, Laner RH, Gai DS. Child. Youth Serv. Rev. 1981; 3(1/2): 37-53.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1981, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0190-7409(81)90029-3

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Bivariate and multivariate analyses were used to describe a large sample of child maltreatment incidence reports from a three-year period in order to learn rates and characteristics of reported maltreatment. Within the sample, those incidences involving foster children and foster parents were compared with the rest of the incidences. The analysis indicates a higher incidence of suspected child maltreatment in families with foster children than in the general, non-maltreating, population of families with their natural children. These maltreating foster families are found to have several characteristics different than the general maltreating population: Older adults, higher family income, less public assistance income support, higher rate of marriage, greater proportion of non-Anglo adults compared to the general population, and the suggestion of reduced capacity to provide appropriate discipline. Difficulties of research from official records, and implications of the findings are also presented.