14 DAY TRIAL // Young children who live in households with one or more unrelated adults are nearly 50 times more likely to die following an inflicted injury, usually being shaken or struck, than children living with both biologic parents, report researchers from the University of Missouri-Columbia and the University of Chicago in the November 2005 issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Contrary to common perception, households with a single parent and no other adults had no increased risk of fatal injury.
In this study of young children who died from inflicted injuries, 21 percent lived in homes with an unrelated adult. More than 80 percent of those households consisted of the child's mother and her boyfriend. In 74 percent of those cases, the boyfriend was the perpetrator.
"It is not single parenthood per se that puts a child at risk," said Bernard Ewigman of the University of Chicago. "It is the presence in the household of unrelated adults, usually a male boyfriend, that dramatically increases the risk."
Most of the deaths involved very young children; 56 percent were less than one year old and 90 percent were less than three. Seventy-three percent of the fatal injuries were caused by shaking or striking the child.