Adaranijo Emmanuel Temitope, Mbamba Crispin Rakibu
Center for Human Services Research, State University of New York at Albany, United States of America; School of Social Welfare, College of Integrated Health Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, United States of America.
School of Social Welfare, College of Integrated Health Sciences, State University of New York at Albany, United States of America.
Child Abuse Negl. 2025 Jun;164:107472. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107472. Epub 2025 Apr 17.
As economic pressures on families intensify, the pathways through which material hardship shapes parental behavior and child outcomes become increasingly critical to understand.
Building upon the Family Stress Model (FSM), we examined the combined influence of material hardship, parental aggravation, and neighborhood efficacy on child maltreatment risks. We hypothesized that these pathways would differ in strength between early and late childhood.
We conducted multiple linear regression analysis with RStudio using waves 3 and 6 of the Future of Families and Child Wellbeing Study (n = 3830) data.
Material hardship significantly predicted both psychological aggression (β = 0.20, p < .001) and physical assault (β = 0.22, p < .001) in early childhood, while its influence diminished in late childhood, remaining significant only for psychological aggression (β = 0.22, p < .001). Parental aggravation showed similar patterns, with stronger effects in early childhood for both outcomes (β = 0.18 and β = 0.15, respectively, p < .001) but maintaining significance only for psychological aggression in late childhood (β = 0.15, p < .001).
These findings extend the FSM by demonstrating that the transmission of family stress varies substantially across developmental stages, with early childhood emerging as a period of heightened vulnerability. The enduring impact of psychological aggression through adolescence, coupled with declining physical assault, exposes how different forms of maltreatment follow unique age-related patterns - a finding that challenges traditional 'one-size-fits-all' interventions approaches. Hence, we suggest developmentally tailored interventions that address both immediate material needs and parental stress management, particularly during early childhood when the impact of these stressors are strongest.
随着家庭面临的经济压力不断加剧，了解物质困境影响父母行为及子女成长结果的途径变得愈发关键。
基于家庭压力模型（FSM），我们考察了物质困境、父母愤怒及邻里效能对儿童遭受虐待风险的综合影响。我们假设这些途径在儿童早期和晚期的影响强度会有所不同。
我们使用家庭与儿童福祉未来研究第3波和第6波数据（n = 3830），在RStudio中进行多元线性回归分析。
物质困境在儿童早期能显著预测心理攻击（β = 0.20，p <.001）和身体攻击（β = 0.22，p <.001），而在儿童晚期其影响减弱，仅对心理攻击仍具有显著影响（β = 0.22，p <.001）。父母愤怒呈现类似模式，在儿童早期对两种结果的影响更强（分别为β = 0.18和β = 0.15，p <.001），但在儿童晚期仅对心理攻击保持显著影响（β = 0.15，p <.001）。
这些发现扩展了家庭压力模型，表明家庭压力的传递在不同发育阶段有很大差异，儿童早期是一个脆弱性增加的时期。心理攻击对青少年的持久影响，以及身体攻击的减少，揭示了不同形式的虐待遵循独特的年龄相关模式——这一发现挑战了传统的“一刀切”干预方法。因此，我们建议开展针对不同发育阶段的干预措施，既要满足即时的物质需求，又要管理父母的压力，尤其是在儿童早期，这些压力源的影响最为强烈。
