Committed Adults Provide Important Protection for Children

Children are safer in stepparent homes than homes with unrelated adults, according to a new study of childhood abuse. The focus of the study was the effect of childhood abuse on non-victimized siblings. The main findings were in line with previous studies showing that simply witnessing abuse can result in problems such as depression and anxiety. One finding that stood out in my review, though, was that children living with unrelated adults had the highest risk of seeing abuse. Although households with “nonparental adults” constituted only 3% of those studied, they represented 10% of the assaults that the children reported. Intact biological families, by contrast, represented 66% of the families studied, but only 3% of the cases of abuse.  

In the middle of the pack were stepfamilies, constituting 8% of the study population and 6% of the abuse cases. If marriage (i.e. stepparents rather than “nonparental adults”) is a proxy for commitment to a family, then it appears that children are safest with committed adults. Studies like this should inform our approach to child protection, so that we can use evidence-based policies to encourage family structures that protect children.