Poster #36 - Risk Factors for Neglectful Parenting Among Families in Poverty

• In Event: 3-001 - Poster Session 2 during Breakfast

Abstract

Poverty is an important predictor of neglectful parenting (Sedlak et al., 2010), yet not all families in poverty experience the same risks. Therefore, it is important to understanding how risk factors tend to co-occur among families in poverty and how families’ risk profiles change across time in order to identify families most likely to engage in neglectful parenting. Additionally, prior research has rarely focused on differentiating predictors of neglect (Slack, 2004; Slack et al., 2010), as opposed to maltreatment generally, and even fewer studies have explored different types of neglect. This study aims to move the field forward by investigating three research questions: 1) How do risks co-occur among families in poverty at two different time points during early childhood?; 2) How do families move between risk profiles across early childhood?; 3) How are risk profiles across early childhood among families in poverty related to neglectful parenting behaviors (physical and supervision neglect) and CPS involvement for neglect?

To answer these questions, I will use the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study (Fragile Families). Risk factors were measured at year 1 and 3 and were maternal depressive symptoms, low maternal education, parenting stress, residential instability, material hardship, and maternal health problem. Neglect was assessed at year 5 and measured by neglectful behaviors and child protective services involvement. All covariates were measured at year 1. All analyses will be conducted in Mplus 7.4 (Muthén, & Muthén, 2015) in a series of three steps. First, I will use Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to model unique clusters of risk factors among families in poverty at year 1 and year 3. LPA will be conducted separately for risk factors at year 1 and year 3. Second, I will use Latent Transition Analysis (LTA) to identify how mothers transition between different risk profiles across year 1 and year 3. Third, I will use a lagged independent variable regression in a structural equation modeling (SEM) framework to estimate how profiles of risk factors at year 1 are associated with neglectful parenting (physical neglect and supervision neglect) and CPS involvement at year 3 and simultaneously estimate how risk profiles at year 3 are associated with neglectful parenting and CPS involvement at year 5. All time points will be included in the same model and standard errors will be clustered by child. I will use full information maximum likelihood estimation (FIML) to account for missing data.

Author

• Kierra MP Sattler, The University of Texas at Austin
  Presenting Author