McCloskey L. (2011). Briefing paper: A systematic review of parenting interventions to prevent child abuse tested with Randomised Control Trial (RCT) designs in high income countries. Pretoria: SVRI. 

Abstract

Child abuse is not a stand-alone family problem, and is associated with multiple risk factors. Some demographic risk factors which correlate with child abuse are low family income; bearing a child before age 18; mother unmarried and low educational attainment. Psychosocial risks include drug or alcohol dependency, depression and parenting stress. Finally, parents who are coercive, lack knowledge about childrearing, and tend to blame infants and children for age appropriate behaviors are at risk for abusing their children. Many parenting interventions reviewed in this paper target more than one risk factor.