Child physical abuse with and without other forms of maltreatment: dysfunctionality versus dysnormality

The fact that most etiological studies of physical abuse have not taken into account co-occurrence of different forms of maltreatment calls into question the validity of our knowledge on the subject. The aim of this study, therefore, is to compare the etiological patterns of cases of physical abuse reported to Quebec child protective services (CPS) according to whether the abuse occurs alone or co-occurs with other forms of maltreatment. The data are taken from the Quebec Incidence Study (QIS), which examined 4,929 reports investigated by Quebec CPS in the fall of 1998. The cases included 514 children who were physically abused: 269 of them were not subjected to any other type of maltreatment and 245 were also victims of one or two other forms of maltreatment. The survey form provided information on more than 30 characteristics of the children reported, their families, and their parental figures. Bivariate and direct logistic regression analyses revealed that the profile of physical abuse cases varies depending on whether the physical abuse occurs alone (what we are calling dysnormality) or in combination with one or two other forms of maltreatment (dysfunctionality). Those results will help deepen our etiological knowledge of physical abuse and may serve to inspire different types of intervention for the two groups of children.