Parents differ in their sensitivity to the environment: An investigation of the relationship between socioeconomic status, social support, and child maltreatment risks

Background: Socioeconomic status (SES) and social support are widely examined factors of child maltreatment. However, it remains unclear whether these factors influence all parents equally. Objective: Guided by the environmental sensitivity framework, we examined whether environmental sensitivity, a personality trait describing individuals' susceptibility to external environments, moderates the direct associations of SES and social support with maltreatment risks and their indirect associations via financial stress and psychological distress. Methods: A total of 612 parents of primary school-aged children completed an online survey measuring their SES, social support, financial stress, psychological distress, environmental sensitivity, and psychological and physical maltreatment. Bayesian structural equation modeling was employed for analysis. Results: We found that parents' environmental sensitivity moderated the direct association between income sufficiency and psychological maltreatment, as well as the indirect relation between income sufficiency and physical maltreatment via financial stress. Specifically, the negative direct association between income sufficiency and psychological maltreatment was only significant among parents with higher environmental sensitivity. The indirect association between income sufficiency and physical maltreatment was more pronounced among parents with higher environmental sensitivity. Neither the direct nor the indirect associations between social support and psychological or physical maltreatment were moderated by environmental sensitivity. Conclusions: These results suggest that parents with high environmental sensitivity from low SES backgrounds are at the highest risk of maltreating their children. These findings highlight the importance of prioritizing such parents in interventions aimed at preventing child maltreatment.