A review of the relationship between poverty and child abuse and neglect: Insights from scoping reviews, systematic reviews and meta‐analyses

Abstract

An up‐to‐date and accurate picture of the evidence on the impact of poverty is a necessary element of the debate about the future direction of children's social care services internationally. The purpose of this paper is to update evidence about the relationship between poverty and child abuse and neglect (CAN) published since a previous report in 2016 (Bywaters et al., 2016). A systematic search was conducted, identifying seven reviews. Poverty was found to be consistently and strongly associated with maltreatment, be that in terms of familial or community‐level poverty, or in terms of economic security. Findings demonstrated that both the type and the quantity of economic insecurities impacted child maltreatment. Certain economic insecurities – income losses, cumulative material hardship and housing hardship – reliably predicted future child maltreatment. Likewise, as families experienced more material hardship, the risk for maltreatment intensified. In some studies, the relationship between poverty and maltreatment differed by abuse type. Future reviews need to investigate individual papers and their findings across different CAN measures, definitions, samples, abuse types and conceptualisations of poverty to provide a comprehensive understanding of the current research base and the directions which need to be taken to further understand and prevent CAN.

The social determinants of mental health and disorder: evidence, prevention and recommendations

“…Poverty also has strong effects on their parents, as the stress of living in poverty affects parental wellbeing, and in troduces conflicts that negatively influence parenting behaviours and the strength of the parentchild relationship 450,451 . Worse, poverty is strongly and consistently linked with child maltreat ment and neglect 451 . Children living in poverty are more likely to be exposed to violence, either in their homes or in the communi ties where they live 450 .…”

“…This begins with their immediate environ ment, as children in poverty are more likely to be living in crowded and/or poorquality housing, and to be exposed to food insecurity and pollution 450 . Poverty also has strong effects on their parents, as the stress of living in poverty affects parental wellbeing, and in troduces conflicts that negatively influence parenting behaviours and the strength of the parentchild relationship 450,451 . Worse, poverty is strongly and consistently linked with child maltreat ment and neglect 451 .…”

A film-based intervention to reduce child maltreatment among migrant and displaced families from Myanmar: Protocol of a pragmatic cluster randomized controlled trial

“…While child maltreatment is a global problem prevalent in both highincome and low-and middle-income countries (LMICs), evidence suggests that children in LMICs-particularly those living at the intersections of poverty, armed conflict and forced migration-may be at increased risk of victimization [3,[6][7][8]. War and war-induced displacement have been shown to increase known risk factors for child maltreatment including household poverty, parental psychological distress, and family dysfunction [3,9,10]. Growing evidence from low-resource, forced migration contexts suggests that exposure to war and displacement-related stressors heighten parental distress, weaken coping and emotion regulation strategies, and interact with cultural norms to increase violence against children in the home [11,12].…”

Co-production workshops with families experiencing multiple and interacting adversities including parental mental health, substance use, domestic violence, and poverty: intervention insights and principles from mothers, fathers, and young people

“…Families living in low-income households are at greater risk of having multiple ACEs compared to high-income households (12). There is also evidence that poverty is strongly associated with child maltreatment (13), and further, that poverty often co-occurs and interacts with other factors, including parental mental health, substance use, and domestic violence and abuse (14), with negative impacts on children's health outcomes and behaviour in later adolescence (15). These behaviours and health outcomes can also endure into adulthood, potentially leading to replication of risk factors within their own parenting practices, resulting in intergenerational cycles of adversity (3,16).…”