Income, Family Structure and CCT Effects on Child Maltreatment in Mexico

Child maltreatment is critical for UN SDG 3 (Health and Well-Being), SDG 4 (Quality Education), SDG 5 (Gender Equality) and SDG 11 (Reduced Inequality). US studies find relations among poverty, welfare receipt and child maltreatment. Much less is known about prevalences and correlates of child maltreatment in low-and-middle-income countries including Mexico, though Latin America has very high family-violence rates globally. The major project objectives are to investigate child maltreatment prevalence in Mexico, correlates of such maltreatment with child/family characteristics including gender, indigenous status, disability status and poverty, how different types of child maltreatment interacting with child/family characteristics are associated with parental expectations of their children’s education, children’s schooling progression and learning, and how conditional-cash-transfer (CCT) programs moderate child maltreatment and associations of indicators of child education (as in 3) with child maltreatment. The project will enhance interschool, interdisciplinary and Penn-Mexico collaborative research and policy-relevant interactions.