Are Father Surrogates a Risk Factor for Child Maltreatment?
- 1 November 2001
- journal article
- other
- Published by SAGE Publications in Child Maltreatment
- Vol. 6 (4), 281-289
- https://doi.org/10.1177/1077559501006004001
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).Keywords
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