Child Maltreatment and Material Deprivation among AFDC-Recipient Families

In order to identify factors associated with child maltreatment among poverty families, 380 welfare recipients in northern New Jersey receiving protective services from the public child-welfare agency were compared with a random sample of 144 welfare recipients not identified as maltreating their children. The results support the centrality of material and social deprivation as factors leading to child maltreatment. A high level of material deprivation characterized both groups; however, the families in which maltreatment occurred live under poorer material circumstances, had more socially and materially deprived childhoods, are more socially isolated, and have more children. These families are the poorest of the poor. The findings fail to support prevalent approaches that emphasize psychodynamic interpretations and, treatment. In contrast, the study suggests policy changes at both the agency and governmental levels which would provide more concrete resources to these families.