The study is aimed at examining the role of parenting stress and parenting alliance in predicting child potential abuse (CPA) in a sample of 298 families with a child aged between 14 and 72 months. Mothers and fathers were administered with: a demographic questionnaire, Child Potential Abuse Inventory VI (Milner, 1986), Parenting Stress Index-SF (Abidin, 1995), Parenting Alliance Measure (Abidin & Konold, 1999), Child Behaviour CheckList Ages 1½-5 (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2000). Gender related differences were considered. Results show that parenting stress and alliance are differently associated with PCA, and parenting stress significantly predicts changes in the variance of maternal and paternal risk of engaging child physical maltreatment. Further, CPA and parenting stress significantly predicts child’s internalization and externalization problems.
Keywords: Child potential abuse, parenting stress, parenting alliance, child adjustment

Sarah Miragoli, Elisa Stagni Brenca, Paola Di Blasio, Parenting stress and alliance, child potential abuse and behavioral problems in preschool children in "MALTRATTAMENTO E ABUSO ALL’INFANZIA" 1/2011, pp. 65-85, DOI:10.3280/MAL2011-001004