Maternal and infant characteristics in abuse: a case control study.

Eighty-six abused children identified by two Children's Aid Societies in Hamilton-Wentworth County, Ontario, were compared with 86 controls born in the same hospital. Three factors were significantly more common in the abused group: (1) low socioeconomic status of the mother, (2) younger age at time of delivery, and (3) indication of a psychosocial problem recorded in the medical chart. The failure to find significant differences between abused …