ABSTRACT
One of the most important problems is the confounding of the factors which cause child abuse with those factors which lead persons or families to be identified as child abusers. Most child abuse and neglect researchers draw their samples of abused children from publicly identified and validated cases of abuse. Kinard and Klerman reviewed four studies of child abuse which provide evidence on the hypothesized relationship between school-age parenthood and child abuse. In addition, there are two other bodies of data which can be examined to shed light on the possible relationship between these two important social issues. The strong feeling that school-age parents are at greater risk than other parents for abusing their children is shared by many students of school-age parenthood and child maltreatment the data supporting such a claim are often contradictory and suspect on numerous methodological grounds.
