Susan Marshall Mason, University of Minnesota, Associate Professor, Epidemiology & Community Health
Title: The epidemiology of child maltreatment: Advancing evidence for primary prevention
Abstract: Child maltreatment (neglect or abuse) is highly prevalent and disproportionately affects poor, American Indian/Alaska Native, and Black children. Child maltreatment is associated with an increased risk of poor health and well-being across the life course, with potential for significant impacts on leading causes of morbidity and mortality. Given its high prevalence and pervasive life course impacts, child maltreatment is a clear and pressing public health issue. Thus, it is notable how little rigorous population-based research has attempted to identify modifiable risk factors for child maltreatment that could point to primary prevention strategies. Major barriers to such research include long-standing cultural narratives of individual parent responsibility and blame that limit attention to social and structural factors that shape parenting capacity and maltreatment risk. In addition, serious methodological challenges have prevented rigorous analysis. These include measurement difficulties, lack of consistent definitions of the outcome (e.g., lack of consensus on what constitutes neglect), and surveillance systems that do not allow fundamental comparisons (e.g., across person, place, or time). This talk will describe these challenges and discuss potential solutions that can advance population-level child maltreatment prevention.
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