Persistent Economic Insecurity and Risk for Child Physical Abuse over Time: A Latent Transition Analysis

Introduction. Economically insecure children are three times more likely to experience physical abuse than economically secure children. Child physical abuse is associated with a variety of consequences for children, including depression, injury, and death. We don’t know, however, whether economically insecure mothers experience better, stable, or worse economic insecurity over time (Age 3 & 5), and whether specific combinations of economic insecurity at Age 3 impact risk for child physical abuse over time (Ages 3 & 5).

Method. We conducted latent transition analyses to investigate the following hypotheses among a sample of mothers from Age 3 and 5 of the Fragile Families and Child Well-being Study (N = 4,523): 1) Are unique combinations, or classes, of economic insecurity (public and private income transfers, bill-paying, housing, food, and medical hardships) differentially associated with child physical abuse at Age 3 and 5? 2) Do these classes of economic insecurity persist from Age 3 to Age 5? 3) For mothers who remain economically insecure, do children experience a heightened risk for child physical abuse at Age 5?

Results. Results from our latent transition analyses provided support for our three hypotheses. There were four latent classes of economic insecurity ranging from low to high economic insecurity at Age 3 and 5. Mothers who reported hardship perpetrated more child physical abuse than mothers who received income transfers but reported no hardship. Further, economically insecure mothers were 70 to 89% more likely to remain economically insecure over time (Age 3 & 5). Finally, mothers who remained economically insecure from Age 3 to 5 were more likely to escalate their use of physical abuse over time, controlling for Age 3 physical abuse, transition probabilities between Age 3 and 5, and the association between Age 5 economic insecurity and physical abuse.

Conclusion. In sum, mothers were likely to experience persistent economic insecurity, which was associated with more child physical abuse over time. Implications for research, policy, and practice will be discussed.