The importance and role of alcohol in the etiology of child maltreatment is still not well understood. Findings of studies on the effect of parental alcoholism on child maltreatment are mixed and inconclusive. Moreover, researchers have not examined through what mechanism(s) physical availability of alcohol may affect child maltreatment. By investigating how the physical availability of alcohol affects child maltreatment, findings of the proposed study will provide new information on the importance and role of alcohol in the etiology of child maltreatment that moves away from solely focusing on individual behaviors to environmental conditions that may place children at elevated risk for physical abuse and neglect. This proposed study will go beyond previous research by (1) investigating how level of alcohol use, not just alcohol abuse or alcoholism, is related to committing child physical abuse and neglect; (2) testing a conceptual model that examines how alcohol use and the physical availability of alcohol may be two pathways that lead to committing child physical abuse and/or neglect; and (3) examining these relationships in a nationally representative probability sample of young adult parents. Thus, this study reduces the biases introduced when specialized populations such as parents already in the child welfare system and alcoholic parents are used. This study will use interview data from young adult parents (n~ 2,427) who participated in the third wave of National Longitudinal Survey of Adolescent Health (Add Health) in 2002. Findings from this study will improve our understanding of the importance and role of alcohol in the etiology of child maltreatment, and will provide a theoretical and empirical basis for designing effective prevention programs to reduce child maltreatment and the individual and societal costs related to maltreatment. This study also will yield a dataset with contextual factors from the 2000 census and alcohol outlet density variables that can be analyzed with Add Health interview data by other investigators.
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