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Updated: Aug 5, 2026

The Social Dimension of Stress: Experimental Manipulations of Social Support and Social Identity in the Trier Social Stress Test
Published on: November 19, 2015
Stress, social support, and substantiated maltreatment in the second and third years of life
J B Kotch1, D C Browne, C L Ringwalt
1Department of Maternal and Child Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.
Objective:
The purpose of this research was to determine whether risk factors for a maltreatment report in the first year of life, especially the interaction of life event stress and social support, persist into the second and third years of life.
Method:
Predominantly low income mothers who had been interviewed shortly after the birth of infants in a longitudinal cohort were re-interviewed around the infants' first birthdays, and reports to North Carolina's Central Registry of Child Abuse and Neglect were tracked for substantiated maltreatment reports.
Results:
Variables significantly associated with a substantiated maltreatment report in the second or third year of life (p < .01) were first year maltreatment reports and participation in Medicaid. Three interactions between a stressful life event indicator variable and a social support indicator variable were significant predictors of substantiated second or third year reports (p < .05).
Conclusions:
Even in the presence of significant risk factors from the first year of life, life event stress can increase the risk of a substantiated maltreatment report in the second or third years of life, but social support may moderate the effect of life events.
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