Ethnicity in child maltreatment research: a content analysis

The present study represents a content analysis of 1,133 articles published between 1977 and 1998 in Child Abuse and Neglect, Child Maltreatment, and Journal of Child Sexual Abuse was performed. Although there were indications of increased attention to ethnicity in child maltreatment research published between 1977 and 1998, the improvements were modest. Of the 1,133 articles examined, 6.7% focused on ethnicity. The percentage of studies that provided information on the ethnic composition of samples increased across time; however, only half of the studies published in the most recent years examined (1995-1998) reported information on the ethnicity of the participants. Although the percentage of articles that used ethnicity in analyses or as a control variable increased across time, three quarters of the articles published in the most recent years examined (1995-1998) did not include ethnicity in their analyses or design.