High Risk Infants and Child Maltreatment: Conceptual and Research Model for Determining Factors Predictive of Child Maltreatment

Abstract

A conceptual framework and a research model for examining the confluence of factors that are predictive of child maltreatment are presented and discussed. The conceptual framework is the ecological approach which perceives child maltreatment as a function of individual, family, social and cultural factors. The value of this model is that it integrates single factor theories of child maltreatment into a multifactor model capable of being empirically tested. The hybrid observational cohort‐case/control design is proposed as the research model to test the ecological approach. This design is being employed in an ongoing study by Kotch and Howze (1984). While the design addresses many of the methodological weaknesses inherent in traditional observational cohort and case/control designs, it is not without its problems.