Younas, Fatima; (2023) Parental risk and resilience: How does evidence inform child maltreatment prevention and reduction? Doctoral thesis (Ph.D), UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

Child Maltreatment is a global concern with a sequela of negative consequences. The Risk and Resilience Ecological Framework is used to enable synthesis of evidence from two systematic reviews, A and B, on evidence of factors that influence parental child maltreatment. Review A comprises non-interventional, empirical studies to determine parental risk and protective factor interplay, lending support to causal and correlational links to child maltreatment. Review B synthesises evidence from intervention evaluations on parental risk factors and intervention provision for child maltreatment. A total of 128 studies, 68 observational studies in Review A and 60 intervention evaluations in Review B, were systematically reviewed. Quality appraisal did not lead to exclusion of studies. Review A findings mirror prior evidence and highlight nuances such as memories of parental childhood maltreatment as risk, emotional support for mothers and companionship support for fathers as protective, and demarcate maltreatment type-specific factors, especially for physical abuse and neglect. A low representation of fathers, under-research of unique factors for sexual and emotional abuse and of macro-level protective factors were identified. Review B provides comprehensive data on potentially effective intervention components including child development education and parental emotional regulation. Behaviour Change Techniques Framework helped identify potentially optimal delivery techniques including Instruction on how to perform a behaviour and Social support (unspecified). Lack of cultural representation, sparsity of interventions targeting fathers, over-reliance on self-reporting measures and under-examination of macro-level intervention components were identified as gaps in knowledge. Both reviews underline a call for consensus in definitions and avoidance of umbrella terms. A final synthesis elucidated the complex interplay of multiple influences on parental child maltreatment. Findings offer valuable insight to move the field forward, inform researchers, policy, and practice to strengthen parental resilience to prevent and reduce child maltreatment.

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