Italian and immigrant families: Assessing risk and protective factors in the evaluation of parenting skills

Child abuse is a major public health issue, which threatens psychological and physical well-being of almost 100.000 minors in Italy. In order to better protect those minors and to favour their positive adaptation, an early assessment of those that are at risk of being maltreated is crucial. The assessment of risk is particularly difficult in migrant families, which are often in a state of vulnerability. The aim of the present study is to: a) evaluate the efficacy of the Risk and Protective factors Protocol (Di Blasio, 2005) in the identification of children at high risk in those families referred to Child Protection Services and b) to highlight specific risk and protective profiles of Italian and foreign families. For this aim, Social records of 58 Italian children and 69 immigrant children were analyzed. Results show that the protocol is useful to discriminate high- and low-risk families regardless of their country of origin. Furthermore, results show that Italian families and foreign families are characterized by different profile of risk and protective factors. Consequences in terms of public health are discussed in the light of the existing literature.

Keywords: Child abuse/maltreatment, immigration, risk factors, protective factors, risk assessment.

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Luca Milani, Serena Grumi, Giulia Gagliardi, Paola Di Blasio, Famiglie italiane e immigrate: identificare fattori di rischio e di protezione nella valutazione delle competenze genitoriali in "PSICOLOGIA DELLA SALUTE" 1/2016, pp 67-89, DOI: 10.3280/PDS2016-001008