Child physical abuse risk factors: A systematic review and a meta-analysis

Child physical abuse (CPA) is a pervasive societal problem with serious outcomes. Understanding CPA risk factors is necessary to identify those at risk for CPA perpetration and to inform efforts to prevent the occurrence of CPA. The present study provides an updated review of conceptual models of CPA, a review of model-related CPA risk factors, and a meta-analytic review of CPA risk factors found in cross-sectional, case-controlled studies. The review of conceptual models yielded >70 explanatory models of CPA from which >140 putative CPA risk factors were extracted. A three-level random-effects meta-analysis of CPA risk factors was conducted. Database and literature searches yielded 58 studies that met the inclusion criteria from which 300 effect size (ES) estimates were identified. In the meta-analysis, 292 ESs were placed into 38 CPA risk factor domains. Twenty significant individual CPA risk factor domain ES estimates and five significant relationship CPA risk factor domain ESs were found. Future studies that simultaneously consider CPA risk and protective factors from within and between ecological levels and that establish causal CPA factors are needed to better inform CPA prevention and treatment efforts.