Child abuse and neglect has often been addresses using Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) ecological model of human development. The role that socioeconomic factors play in partially explaining these phenomena is already well established, namely that the risk of abuse and neglect increases in contexts of low socioeconomic resources. However, this association is not direct and encloses a set of moderation/ mediation effects of individual, familiar and community variables. Specifically, several explanations have been advanced regarding these relationships: (1) the stress associated with poverty transfers to parent-child interactions and some parents may engage in harsh behavior towards their children; (2) poor families are simply more likely to be reported; (3) poor families are reported for neglect more frequently because they cannot afford to adequately provide for their children due to lack of material resources; and (4) poverty and neglect are apparently correlated, but in fact other underlying factors are motivating this association (Waldfogel, 2000). In order to systematize and clarify the apparent association between poverty and child maltreatment, we conducted a systematic literature review with the following objectives: a) to map the research exploring the association between poverty indicators (proximal or distal) and child abuse and neglect; b) to identify the individual, familiar or community variables that moderate or mediate this association; and c) to design an explanatory theoretical model of the relation between poverty and child abuse and neglect. A systematic electronic search was conducted in eight databases, namely Academic Search Complete, ERIC, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, PubMed, Web of Science and Scopus. The studies were identified using all possible combinations of the following groups of search terms: (a) “child maltreatment” OR “child abuse” OR “child neglect” OR “abusive parent*” OR “parental neglect” OR “risk parents” OR “family violence” OR “maladaptive parenting” OR “dysfunctional parenting”; AND (b) “poverty” OR “low income” OR “low status” OR “family income” OR “poor famil*” OR “economic disadvantage”; NOT (c) “child sexual abuse”. Additionally, a hand search was performed in the references of the relevant papers and on previous literature reviews on this subject. According to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement (Liberati et al., 2009), we conducted a four-phase process to select the relevant studies based on a sequential examination of the tittle, abstract and full text, based on a set of eligibility criteria. The research reviewed is likely to present an important contribution to disentangle the extent to which poverty and maltreatment relationships may be causal, as well as the effects of other variables in the explanation of this association. Moreover, the theoretical model advanced may constitute an important tool in the design of policies and intervention programs in the domain of child abuse and neglect.

--

• Psychology - Social Sciences