Lesa Bethea

Multiple factors contribute to child abuse, claims Lesa Bethea in the following viewpoint. Although individual factors such as emotional immaturity and substance abuse increase the risk of child abuse, societal factors such as poverty and unaffordable health care also put children at risk, argues Bethea. Child abuse prevention strategies that consider the complex interrelationships among risk factors, Bethea maintains, are more likely to be effective than programs that focus on one cause. Lesa Bethea is a clinical assistant professor of family medicine in the Department of Family and Preventive Medicine at the University of South Carolina School of Medicine, Columbia.

As you read, consider the following questions:

1. Why does the author argue that cause-and-effect models do not accurately predict future cases of child abuse"
2. According to Bethea, what is the most frequently and persistently noted risk factor...