Is the U.S. National Decline in Child Physical Abuse Attributable to the Decline in Intimate Partner Violence and Births to Adolescent Mothers?

Rates of intimate partner violence (IPV), child physical and sexual abuse, and adolescent births, have declined dramatically since 1993. Research has confirmed increased risk of physical and psychological abuse of children living in homes with IPV or with adolescent parents. We wondered how much of the decline observed in child abuse substantiations could be attributed to reductions in IPV and adolescent childbearing. Accordingly, we examined the rates of substantiated abuse for each U.S. state for the period 2001–2013, as state-level estimates for both IPV and teen pregnancy rates were also available for this period. We modeled the reduction in substantiated child physical, sexual, and psychological abuse by state and combined these data for a national estimate. With a national decline in substantiated child physical abuse of 182.9 cases per 1000,000 children for the period from 2001 to 2013, 7.5% of the decline was attributable to the decline in adolescent births, and 4.9% could be attributed to the decline in IPV. The reduction in births to adolescents was also associated with 9.5% of the reduction in substantiated sexual abuse over the same years. Policy efforts to reduce IPV and adolescent births appear also to have contributed to a decline in child maltreatment.