1. Objectifs

Intentions :
«The primary objective of this review was to identify the psychosocial risk and protective factors involved in intergenerational cycles of child maltreatment, with the secondary objective of extracting prevalence data to better understand the extent of this problem.» (p. 683)

Questions/Hypothèses :
«What are the factors that increase or decrease the risk of IT/C [intergenerational transmission or continuity] of child maltreatment? What is the prevalence of IT/C of child maltreatment?» (p. 673)

2. Méthode

Échantillon/Matériau :
The study is based on a total of 51 articles. «The initial search was built in PsycINFO (Ovid, 1806 to present). [T]he search strategy was [after] adapted to the following databases: MEDLINE (Ovid, 1946 to present), Social Work Abstracts (Ovid, 1968 to present), Scopus, Web of Science Core Collection (limited to Conference Proceedings Citation Index–Science—1990– present and Conference Proceedings Citation Index–Social Science & Humanities—1990–present), and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses Global.» (p. 673)

Type de traitement des données :
Réflexion critique

3. Résumé

«Through reviewing […] studies, identified risk and protective factors were categorized as parents’ individual characteristics, parents’ histories of childhood adversity, relational factors, and contextual factors. Parental psychopathology was the most documented risk factor with the majority of studies reporting an increased risk of IT/C of child maltreatment among affected parents and other studies finding no effect […]. Mixed results were also identified concerning substance use and maternal age. In terms of parents’ childhood adversities, some sexual abuse characteristics and experiencing multiple forms of maltreatment and other adversities were found to increase the risk of IT/C, while having had supportive relationships with adults was protective. The most documented relational risk factors were mothers’ histories of IPV and problems with their partner, and all studies investigating these factors found significant effects. Surprisingly, parenting behaviors, while well studied, yielded mixed findings in terms of their significance. Positive relationships with other adults and with their own child and high satisfaction with parenthood were relational protective factors, even though investigations of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and social support in general resulted in mixed findings. Finally, some contextual risk and protective factors, while a lot less documented, were identified (e.g., community violence, living with a violent adult, socioeconomic status).» (p. 683)