Social Support and Stress Factors in Child Maltreatment Among Alcoholic Families

The relationships among social support, stress, child maltreatment and child aggressiveness in alcoholic families were investigated. Subjects were 62 fathers, 65 mothers, and 65 target children. Participants consisted of families in which the biological parents were either married or cohabiting, and in which there was a male child between the ages of 3 and 5 years. Individual difference factors assessed were extent of social support, stress, child maltreatment, and child aggressiveness. Based on prior research, 3 process models were proposed and tested against one another using path analysis. For this high risk alcoholic sample, results suggested that for fathers, social support and stress were each independent direct predictors of child maltreatment. In contrast, for mothers, social support was an indirect predictor of child maltreatment, and it buffered (moderated) the effect of stress on child maltreatment. For both fathers and mothers, lifetime alcohol problems predicted extent of child maltreatment. The data also indicated that child maltreatment influenced child aggressiveness.