Who Gets It Next? The Impact of Family Structure on the Risk of Child Abuse in Abusive Multi-Child Households

Julianne K. Ohlander, Pennsylvania State University
Ken Chew, University of California, Irvine
Richard McCleary, University of California, Irvine

What is the impact of family structure on the distribution of child abuse within abusive households? When abusive households include more than one child, does sibling configuration affect which sibling is victimized next? Equal probability sampling was used to extract a sample of 108 child protection family histories in Orange County, California. Each sampled family had two or more children aged under 18, of which at least one was a substantiated victim of physical or sexual abuse. The units of analysis comprised 680 "person-incidents" (230 victims plus 450 non-victims). Cox proportional hazards regression was applied to predict physical and sexual abuse re-victimization. Results for both physical and sexual abuse show protective effects from having numerous, or older siblings, net of adult characteristics, prior victimization, and the child's own age. The presence of bigger brothers or sisters seems to increase a child's safety by enhancing surveillance.