Economic Stress Model of Child Maltreatment and Child Protection System Involvement

This model provides an overview of the various explanations for a causal path from poverty or economic stress to child maltreatment and child protection system (CPS) involvement. 

There is a large research literature suggesting that poverty is a correlate of child maltreatment.  It is important to understand why such a relationship exists, in order to consider how to effectively address it.  I find that much of the existing literature either conflates child maltreatment with CPS involvement, or does not adequately control for competing explanations of an observed association between poverty and child maltreatment or CPS involvement.  The present model offers guidance on how to think about designing research on this topic, with the goal of  contributing to a better understanding of the etiology of these social problems.  

Note: The resource inadequacy and psychosocial models related to hypotheses 1 and 2 were introduced in my dissertation, published in 1999. Since that time, I have been working on improving the model, with the current version presented in various talks and lectures since 2001. In 2023, this model was published in a book chapter, which can be found at the "See Also" link below.