THE CORRELATES OF CHILD PHYSICAL ABUSE AND NEGLECT BY ADOLESCENT MOTHERS

Theoretical and empirical knowledge about the link between adolescent motherhood and child maltreatment is in an early stage of development. Research has produced contradictory findings as to a relationship bet ween the two and has not focused on identifying correlates. To fill ga ps in the knowledge base and generate hypotheses for future tests, thi s secondary analysis of data on a subset of 119 mothers who gave birth prior to their 18th birthday focused on identifying characteristics t hat discriminate among low-income adolescent mothers with maltreated c hildren and comparable mothers whose children were not known to be mal treated. Bivariate analyses of 18 characteristics from several theoret ically justified domains revealed that 11 were associated with neglect and four with abuse. Step-wise discriminant analysis identified six c orrelates of neglect that correctly classified 85% of the mothers and four for abuse that correctly classified 79% of the mothers. Discussio n focuses on implications for future research and hypothesis generatio n.