Leventhal J M
Child Abuse Negl. 1982;6(2):113-23. doi: 10.1016/0145-2134(82)90003-5.
A major focus of studies of child abuse has been the identification of children who are at high risk for abuse. Despite this emphasis, little has been written about the research methodology in such studies. This paper reviews the three major research strategies to investigate risk factors: (1) randomized controlled trials, (2) prospective or observational cohort studies, and (3) retrospective or case-control studies. In addition, eight methodological standards are presented that should help to minimize bias in studies of risk factors for child abuse. These standards are: (1) clear description of abuse, (2) choice of a specific control group, (3) equal demographic and clinical susceptibility, (4) clear definition of the risk factor or protective factor, (5) unbiased ascertainment of the risk factor, (6) clear temporal sequence between risk factor and abuser, (7) equal detection of child abuse, and (8) unequal review of abused and nonabused subjects. Most studies of risk factors for child abuse have used either a case-control or, less frequently, an observational cohort design, both of which are nonexperimental research strategies. In such studies, the use of comparable control groups (standards 2 and 3) and equal detection of abuse in exposed and nonexposed children (standard 7) are of major importance in minimizing bias.
虐待儿童研究的一个主要重点是识别那些有受虐高风险的儿童。尽管有此重点，但关于此类研究的研究方法却鲜有著述。本文回顾了用于调查风险因素的三种主要研究策略：（1）随机对照试验，（2）前瞻性或观察性队列研究，以及（3）回顾性或病例对照研究。此外，还提出了八项方法标准，这些标准应有助于尽量减少虐待儿童风险因素研究中的偏差。这些标准是：（1）对虐待的清晰描述，（2）特定对照组的选择，（3）人口统计学和临床易感性相等，（4）风险因素或保护因素的明确定义，（5）风险因素的无偏倚确定，（6）风险因素与施虐者之间明确的时间顺序，（7）对虐待儿童的同等检测，以及（8）对受虐和未受虐受试者的不平等审查。大多数虐待儿童风险因素研究使用的是病例对照设计，或者较少使用观察性队列设计，这两种都是非实验性研究策略。在此类研究中，使用可比对照组（标准2和3）以及对暴露和未暴露儿童的虐待进行同等检测（标准7）对于尽量减少偏差至关重要。
