Risk and protective factors for child maltreatment: A review

The purpose of this review was to synthesize the empirical literature regarding key risk and protective factors for child maltreatment at each level of the socioecological model and to identify directions for future research and practice.

Prior research has largely focused on risk and protective factors at the individual and interpersonal levels of the socioecological model. More recently, research has begun to examine risk and protective factors at the community and societal levels, with results suggesting that programmatic and policy interventions that reduce risk and enhance protection at these levels are promising primary prevention strategies for child maltreatment.

Future research should continue to focus on risk and protective factors at the community and societal levels with the aim of building the evidence base for population-wide prevention strategies. Such strategies have the potential to create contexts in which families and children thrive.