Trauma Survivors Network - provided by ATS

Survive. Connect. Rebuild.

A Program of the ATS

Risk and Protective Factors

A combination of individual, relational, community and societal factors contribute to the risk of child maltreatment. Although children are not responsible for the harm inflicted upon them, certain individual characteristics have been found to increase their risk of being maltreated. Risk factors are contributing factors—not direct causes.

Examples of risk factors:

  • Disabilities or mental retardation in children that may increase caregiver burden
  • Social isolation of families
  • Parents’ lack of understanding of children’s needs and child development
  • Parents’ history of domestic abuse
  • Poverty and other socioeconomic disadvantage, such as unemployment
  • Family disorganization, dissolution, and violence, including intimate partner violence
  • Lack of family cohesion
  • Substance abuse in family
  • Young, single non-biological parents
  • Poor parent-child relationships and negative interactions
  • Parental thoughts and emotions supporting maltreatment behaviors
  • Parental stress and distress, including depression or other mental health conditions
  • Community violence
Protective factors are the opposite of risk factors and may lessen the risk of child maltreatment.
Protective factors exist at individual, relational, community, and societal levels.

Examples of protective factors:

  • Supportive family environment
  • Nurturing parenting skills
  • Stable family relationships
  • Household rules and monitoring of the child
  • Parental employment
  • Adequate housing
  • Access to health care and social services
  • Caring adults outside family who can serve as role models or mentors
  • Communities that support parents and take responsibility for preventing abuse