Study Of Child Maltreatment Research Articles

The ethics of child maltreatment surveys in relation to participant distress: Implications of social science evidence, ethical guidelines, and law

Epidemiological surveys measuring the prevalence of child maltreatment generate essential knowledge that is required to enhance human rights, promote gender equality, and reduce child abuse and neglect and its effects. Yet, evidence suggests Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) may assess the risk of these studies using higher than normal thresholds, based on a perception they may cause high distress to participants. It is essential for IRBs and researchers to have an accurate understanding of the nature and extent of participant distress associated with these studies, and of the duties of researchers towards survey participants, so that meritorious research is endorsed and duties to participants discharged. Assessment by IRBs of the ethics of such research must be appropriately informed by scientific evidence, ethical principles, and legal requirements. This article adds to knowledge by considering participant distress in child maltreatment surveys and its appropriate ethical and operational treatment. We provide an updated overview of scientific evidence of the frequency and severity of distress in studies of child maltreatment, a review of ethical requirements including a focus on beneficence and participant welfare, and a new analysis of researchers' legal duties towards participants. Our analyses demonstrate that participant distress is infrequent and transitory, that researchers can satisfy ethical requirements towards participants, and that legal liability does not extend to emotional distress. Informed by these bodies of knowledge, we distil key principles of good epidemiological practice to provide solutions to operational requirements in these surveys, which both fulfil ethical requirements to participants, and demonstrate trauma-informed practice.

Child maltreatment in Bangladesh: Poverty, social class, and the emotional abuse of elementary school children by teachers

Child maltreatment is a global problem, and child punishment, both physical and emotional, is a persistent phenomenon and major child rights issue in the global south, particularly in Bangladesh. Child abuse is any emotional, physical, or sexual mistreatment of a child that is perpetrated by an adult in a role of responsibility. Emotional abuse refers to a relationship between a child and a caregiver, which is a consistent pattern of harmful interactions with a child, other than physical or sexual abuse. In Bangladesh, the prevalence of emotional abuse within school settings is ostensibly widespread. However, there is little systematic research on the occurrence of emotional abuse within elementary schools in the nation. This article focuses on the incidence and predictors of emotional punishment, as well as students’ reactions to discipline among elementary school-going students in Bangladesh. A survey data set was used to explore 450 primary school children’s experiences of emotional abuse and responses to abuse within the school system in Bangladesh. Findings indicate that 88% of child participants were scolded during their current school year, and 82.7% were scolded during the previous school year. Teachers threatened about a quarter (24.9%) of the participants in their current school year. We found that poverty was a consistent factor for children receiving emotional punishment in schools. Ninety-two percent of poor children were subjected to emotional abuse in schools, and poor children were significantly more likely to suffer emotional abuse by teachers than non-poor children. The findings of this study highlight the need to conduct further studies of child maltreatment within schools in Bangladesh. In particular, a better understanding of the frequency and impact of emotional abuse within schools in Bangladesh will help to inform interventions at all levels of practice including, individual, family, group, community, and policy levels, as well inform teacher training and teacher education curricula in the country.

Barbara L. Bonner: Award for Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training.

The Award for Distinguished Contributions of Applications of Psychology to Education and Training acknowledges psychologists who contribute to new teaching methods or solutions to learning problems through the use of research findings or evidence-based practices. Particular emphasis is placed on the use of psychological knowledge to improve learning in educational settings, including prekindergarten to Grade 12, or in communities. The 2014 recipient is Barbara L. Bonner. She is acknowledged for "her passionate determination to improve the lives of children throughout the world by training countless professionals to be leaders in the field of child maltreatment, for her leadership in establishing one of the most highly respected centers for the study of child maltreatment in the nation, and for directing an interdisciplinary training program on child maltreatment. Bonner's award citation, biography, and a selected bibliography are presented here.

Developmental and Social-Emotional Screening in Child Welfare: Implications for Young Children in Rural Settings

Studies of child maltreatment in rural areas are equivocal, with some showing higher rates and others showing no differences compared with other communities. The current study presents findings on developmental and social-emotional screenings among young child welfare-involved rural children (N = 1,321). Almost half of these children showed problems requiring further assessment. Children who spent time in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit and children in foster care demonstrated more developmental problems, while biracial children and children referred for parental substance abuse had more social-emotional concerns. This study adds to the scarce literature on the needs, challenges, and strengths of child welfare-involved families in rural communities.

Understanding risk and protective factors for child maltreatment: The value of integrated, population-based data

In this article, we argue for expanded efforts to integrate administrative data systems as a “practical strategy” for developing a richer understanding of child abuse and neglect. Although the study of child maltreatment is often critiqued for being atheoretical, we believe that a more pressing concern is the absence of population-based and prospective epidemiological data that can be used to better understand the distribution and interacting nature of risk and protective factors for maltreatment. We begin by briefly addressing the relevance of empirical observations to etiological theories of child maltreatment. Although the latter is widely cited as critical to the development of effective prevention and intervention responses, less attention has been paid to the role of population-based data in the development of theories relevant to highly applied research questions such as those pertaining to child abuse and neglect. We then discuss how child protection data, in isolation, translates into a relatively narrow range of questions that can be asked and answered, with an inherently pathology-focused construction of risks and little attention paid to strengths or protective factors. We next turn to examples of recent findings—spanning multiple countries—emerging from information integrated across data systems, concluding by calling for expanded administrative data linkages in an effort to better understand and prevent child maltreatment.

A multiple-levels-of-analysis approach to the study of developmental processes in maltreated children

Before the early 1970s, scientific investigations of children from high-risk environments, as well as those with mental disorders, portrayed the developmental course of such individuals as deterministic, inevitably eventuating in maladaptive and psychopathological outcomes (1). As researchers discovered that not all high-risk children evinced the dire consequences that the existing theories of psychopathology predicted, comprehending the processes through which children at risk did not develop psychopathology became viewed as important for informing theoretical viewpoints on the development of maladaptation and pathology (2). Indeed, over the past several decades advances have occurred in understanding the complexity of causality, the interaction of risk and protective factors, the heterogeneity of disorders, and the importance of biological and psychological developmental processes and mechanisms (3, 4). The work of Kaufman et al. (5) in a recent issue of PNAS illustrates that individual risk factors alone seldom are powerful predictors of later psychopathological outcomes (6, 7). Much more often, adequate prediction of either disturbance or resilience requires considering multiple risks and protective factors and their interplay. It is now common knowledge that the same risk factors may be associated with different outcomes (i.e., multifinality) and that subgroups of individuals exhibiting similar problems arrived at them from different beginnings (i.e., equifinality) (8). Furthermore, comprehending the factors contributing to positive outcomes despite the presence of significant adversity (i.e., known as resilience; see ref. 1) can help to broaden the understanding of developmental processes that may not be evident in normative environments. The study of child maltreatment, perhaps the greatest failure of the caregiving environment to provide the expectable experiences that are necessary to promote normal developmental processes, provides researchers with a vital opportunity to investigate the pathways to normal and deviant outcomes (9). Child abuse and neglect set in motion a probabilistic path of epigenesis for …

Policy makers' perspectives on the utility of a national study of child maltreatment.

Reliable national child maltreatment data are needed for developing and modifying policies aimed at preventing child maltreatment and helping child victims of maltreatment. Health Canada hosted a daylong forum in 2002 to solicit feedback from senior Government of Canada policy and program officials involved in child welfare programs and research in regard to the data collected in the Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS). This article reviews the discussions and debates regarding the utility of the CIS data for government policy makers and reflects on the implications for surveillance and knowledge in the area of child maltreatment. The key themes are definitions and measurement issues, the value of enhanced and additional data, and challenges to linking research and practice.

Finding common ground in the study of child maltreatment, youth violence, and adult domestic violence.

For several decades, we have witnessed a surge in public policies aimed at ending child maltreatment, youth violence, and adult domestic violence. Commensurate with this increased interest has been a growing body of research on each issue's etiology, affected population, and the public policy and prevention impacts. Even a cursory review of the literature suggests a number of commonalities across these forms of violence. As such, it seems timely and prudent to craft a research framework that facilitates the identification and dissemination of practice and policy innovations that can address all three concerns. This article articulates an overarching framework to guide researchers in better identifying common avenues of study. After summarizing the commonalities found across the three areas, the authors identify cross-cutting issues that have particular relevance for advancing our understanding of violence and its effects on personal and social interactions.

Adolescent Childbearers in Later Life

In a study of child maltreatment, mothers who began childbearing as younger adolescents (age 17 years or younger), older adolescents (age 18 to 19 years), or adults (age 20 to 24 years) did not differ regarding child maltreatment or maternal self-perceptions of competence, depressive symptoms, or most aspects of social support. Sociodemographic risk factors persisted into later life for adolescent childbearers. Among younger adolescent childbearers (age 17 years or younger), mothers of maltreated and nonmaltreated children did not differ on self-perceptions of social support, competence, or depressive symptoms. Sociodemographic differences between these two groups suggested that younger adolescent childbearers who do not overcome sociodemographic deficits common to early childbearing are at greatest risk for child maltreatment.

The Nature of Knowledge in the Population Health Perspective: The Case Study of Child Maltreatment

In this article we discuss the population health perspective (PHP), through the case study of child maltreatment. Child maltreatment is a complex social and health phenomenon, influenced by a variety of economic and social factors. PHP takes many of these factors into account and provides a useful tool to study child maltreatment. We also attempt to bring to the forefront several of the underlying assumptions of PHP through the lenses of feminism and postmodernism. Lastly, potential implications of using PHP are discussed.

Studying Child Abuse, Neglect, and Exploitation in Middle School Social Studies

or many years, child abuse and neglect were largely F unaddressed issues. Although awareness of child maltreatment has increased, estimates regarding the pervasiveness of abuse indicate that the victimization of children remains critically underreported, with the vast majority of cases never reaching the attention of professionals (Crosson-Tower 1999; Finkelhor 1984). Although under the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974; the Child Abuse Prevention, Adoption, and Family Services Act of 1988; and various state laws, children are entitled to services regarding and protection of their emotional and physical safety, the provision of these services is dependent on whether people intervene on behalf of children who are at risk. Creating caring and safe environments for children requires a communitywide effort in which open discussion is fostered and the taboo and secrecy of abuse are overcome by awareness and motivated intervention. In this article we explore the study of child maltreatment in the middle school social studies classroom for the purposes of alerting young people to the problem of abuse and initiating them into their civic role as advocates for those who need protection and safety.

Stress, memory, and emotion: developmental considerations from the study of child maltreatment.

Emotion and memory are examined within a developmental framework. The point of departure for this discussion is the study of maltreated children whose traumatic experiences have been linked to difficulties in emotional development. It is suggested that cognitive processes such as memory and attention serve to link experience with emotion and emotion with psychopathology. Thus, an information processing approach is used to explain the development of maltreated children's adaptive and maladaptive coping responses. It is argued that maltreated children's association of affective stimuli with traumatic experiences and memories selectively alters the meaning of emotions for these children. More generally, the role of experience and learning as a component of emotional development is emphasized.

Estimating the occurrence of child maltreatment and risk-factor effects: Benefits of a mixed-design strategy in epidemiologic research

Despite the large volume of literature on child abuse and neglect generated over the past two decades, there has been relatively little comprehensive discussion of the limitations of different study designs for achieving major epidemiologic research goals. Although some improvements have been made in conventional research designs, there have been few efforts to develop new approaches. This article discusses the methodologic limitations of four observational study designs—ecologic, case-control, cross-sectional, and cohort—that dominate the child abuse and neglect literature; identifies key features of an “ideal” study of child maltreatment; and proposes a new mixed-design research strategy. The major advantage of the proposed strategy is that it greatly improves the ability to identify cases of child maltreatment from a well-defined population at risk representing diverse segments of the US population.

Illustrating the interface of family and peer relations through the study of child maltreatment

AbstractThe developmental study of social adaptation in maltreated children provided the context for examining the linkages between family and peer relations. Participants included 115 school‐age children; 59 were maltreated. Teachers and peers in the classrooms of the targeted children provided assessments of the social functioning of individual children. Mothers completed an assessment of their parenting practices. The results demonstrated that teachers perceived maltreated children, particularly physically abused children, as lower in social competence and social acceptance and higher in externalizing behavior problems. Peers were more likely to actively withdraw from or reject maltreated children. Patterns of peer‐perceived aggression and withdrawal were examined, and maltreated children who were both aggressive and withdrawn were particularly deficient in social effectiveness. Maltreatment and parenting practices were related to differences in social effectiveness. Continuities in relationship disturbance from families to peers were discussed.

Methodological issues and practical problems in conducting research on maltreated children

This paper addresses several methodological and practical problems encountered in studies of child maltreatment. Among the most significant issues are: 1. 1. Developing classification schemes for multiple forms of maltreatment; 2. 2. Distinguishing between chronic maltreatment and isolated incidents of maltreatment; 3. 3. Identifying potential sources of bias in study samples; 4. 4. Choosing criteria for selecting comparison groups of nonmaltreated children; 5. 5. Determining whether comparison groups have experienced maltreatment; 6. 6. Deciding whether study participants should be informed that the research concerns maltreatment; and 7. 7. Tracking respondents in longitudinal studies. Discussions and illustrations of these problems draw from the author's research on the psychological consequences of abuse for children.

The Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect: Issues and Research

Starr, MacLean, Keating, Life Span Developmental Outcomes of Child Maltreatment. Egeland, A Longitudinal Study of High Risk Families: Issues and Findings. Herrenkohl, Herrenkohl, Wu, The Developmental Consequences of Child Abuse: The Lehigh Longitudinal Study. Vietze, O'Connor, Sherrod, Altemeier, The Early Screening Project. Zuravin, Research Definitions of Child Physical Abuse and Neglect: Current Problems. Black, Longitudinal Studies in Child Maltreatment. Gilgun, Discovery-Oriented Qualitative Methods Relevant to Longitudinal Research on Child Abuse and Neglect. Milner, Measuring Parental Personality Charcteristics and Psychopathology in Child Maltreatment Research. Grusec, Walters, Psychological Abuse and Childrearing Belief Systems. Mash, Measurement of Parent-Child Interaction in Studies of Child Maltreatment. Wolfe, McGee, Assessment of Emotional Status Among Maltreated Children. Dubowitz, The Impact of Child Maltreatment on Health.

Developmental psychopathology in the context of the family: Illustrations from the study of child maltreatment.

Developmental psychopathology in the context of the family: Illustrations from the study of child maltreatment.

Transactional approach to prediction of child maltreatment

The transactional-developmental approach was applied to a prospective longitudinal study of child maltreatment. Maternal background, infant constitutional, mother-infant interactional and maternal perception of infant temperament measures were entered into a multiple linear regression equation to predict child maltreatment. The results provide support for the transactional perspective in understanding the multiple determinants of early child maltreatment.