Indeed, Jay Belsky incorporated all of these risk factors into his process model of parenting, 11 and data from
multiple studies support links to child well - being.12 In an experiment
on the effectiveness of a program for low - birth - weight infants, Lawrence Berger and Jeanne Brooks - Gunn examined the relative
effect of both socioeconomic status and parenting
on child abuse and neglect (as measured by ratings of
health providers who saw children in the treatment and control groups six times over the first three years of life, not by review of administrative data) and found that both factors contributed significantly and uniquely to the likelihood that a family was perceived to engage in some form of child maltreatment.13 The link between parenting behaviors and child maltreatment suggests that interventions that promote
positive parenting behaviors would also contribute to lower rates of child maltreatment among families served.