Understanding Of Child Abuse Research Articles

Child, parent and contextual factors associated with child protection system involvement and child maltreatment in the family: A rapid evidence review

AbstractChild abuse and neglect in the home is a prevalent and significant issue in Australia. Recent findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study revealed that 62.2 per cent of participants had experienced at least one type of maltreatment during childhood, with most reporting multi‐type maltreatment. This rapid evidence review was aimed at understanding factors associated with child abuse and neglect in the family context. Results from the included studies indicated that there is a complex interplay between various child‐related factors, parent or family characteristics and contextual factors in understanding child maltreatment. Implications for a reliance on proxy measures of child maltreatment, including involvement with child protection systems, are also considered. A key finding across the included studies was that parent characteristics were consistently identified and should be a key target for prevention. Further research is needed to explore the role of parenting capacity and skills in the prevention of harm, the intersection between associated factors, how protective factors and strength‐based approaches can inform prevention efforts and how policies and practices can be designed to appropriately address this issue.

State variations in child maltreatment reports among adolescents in the United States

ABSTRACT Understanding child maltreatment on a national level is complicated by lack of consistency in definitions of abuse and reporting by state. Adolescents experience child maltreatment, but responses to their maltreatment likely differ from younger children due to differences in development and vulnerability. The present study examined state variations of adolescent child protective systems reports using data from the 2015–2019 NCANDS. We calculated the rates of maltreatment reports, substantiations, and maltreatment subtypes per 1,000 adolescents in the population. Findings revealed wide variations across all three measured rates. Examining state variations involved with CPS is critical to informing policy and practice solutions.

Commentary on Kempe, the Next 50 Years

This paper provides a reflection on the evolution of child maltreatment systems and research across the globe during the time since the establishment of the Kempe Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Child Abuse and Neglect (Kempe Center) over 50 years ago. While research has demonstrated that children who are victims of maltreatment have poorer outcomes than their peers, it is also clear that the child welfare workforce faces workforce challenges, and the system established 50 years ago is not the same as it is today. Efforts to move this field of study forward in a changing world rely upon the understanding of child abuse and neglect in the broader culture of our world, including disentangling poverty and social structures from neglect, supporting underrepresented people and communities, and identifying how best to balance the role of child welfare with community services. The Kempe Center’s continued commitment to a multidisciplinary approach to understanding, preventing, and treating child maltreatment, while challenging professional and social reticence to address complex contributing issues and the impact of historical actions, is at the core of its work looking forward to the next 50 years. The continued focus of centering research as a critical component in moving the field forward in just and equitable ways is demonstrated in this sampling of current efforts to support better outcomes for children and families.

County-level analysis on occupation and ecological determinants of child abuse and neglect rates employing elastic net regression

BackgroundOccupation is a known determinant of worker physical and behavioral health risk, yet most previous studies have focused on unemployment, underemployment, and job satisfaction to understand child maltreatment risk. ObjectiveThis county-level study (n = 278) investigated the association between occupation and child maltreatment rates and community well-being in California, Colorado, Minnesota, Oregon, and New Mexico. Participants and settingStates were selected due to having comparable, publicly available county-level data on substantiated child abuse and neglect rates within a five-year span between 2015 and 2020. MethodsUsing US Census Bureau American Community Survey data, we collected percentages of the employed population among 13 occupations. Five additional community health indicators came from the County Health Rankings and Roadmaps. Elastic net linear regression was used for variable selection and because of explanatory variables' interrelationships. Linear regression was used to model individual industries positively associated with child abuse rates. ResultsThe elastic net model selected ten important variables in explaining child maltreatment rates. Important occupational sectors were agriculture, forestry, fishing (AFF), manufacturing, wholesale, retail, finance, and education. Important community indicators included housing, injury deaths, and poor mental health days. Only AFF and retail showed greater child abuse rates with increasing percentages of the workforce in these occupations in unadjusted models (AFF: β = 0.03 SE = 0.01, p = 0.02; Retail: β = 0.09 SE = 0.04, p = 0.02). ConclusionsOur findings suggest group-level effects of counties with a larger AFF and retail presence experiencing higher child maltreatment rates. Given that numerous prior studies of county economies note the strong associations of certain employment types with cultural attitudes, educational opportunities, regional biases, and other unmeasured variables, future studies should incorporate individual level data in a multilevel framework.

Multigenerational patterns of parenting-at-risk: A test of interpersonal specificity using copy process theory.

This study tests ways in which the perception of intergenerational continuity in parenting behaviors among child-maltreatment (CM) and non-CM families conform to Benjamin's (2006) Copy Process Theory, which considers three copy processes: Identification (be like him/her), Recapitulation (behave as if he/she is still present and in charge), and Introjection (treat myself as he/she treated me). Across two home visits and a laboratory session, 171 mothers of preschoolers (M = 3.7 years) completed the SASB Intrex Questionnairerelative to herself, her history with her parents, and her present relationship with her child. Mothers' retrospective reports of her interactions with caregivers were correlated with the quality of self-reported parenting processes in interactions with her preschooler. Analyses indicated high rates of intergenerational copying in both samples for each copy process. While copying in general was observed in nearly all mothers (roughly 80%-90%) and emphasized warm, securely attached patterns, the copying of hostility and/or lack of affiliation occurred in copied profiles for about one-third of mothers. About the more problematic profiles, CM mothers tended to rate themselves as being in the child-like position they experienced in their own childhood, with themes involving hostile control perceived from their child. By contrast, non-CM mothers copied disaffiliative themes primarily in relation to themselves. Findings verify that interpersonal patterns and internalized relational histories are important keys for understanding CM risk. The use of a method that offers interpersonal specificity at the level of individual profiles has application to clinical practice with at-risk parents.

Psychological Aspects of Child Maltreatment.

In this review, we provide information about the etiology, risk factors, and clinical presentations of maltreatment to help clinicians better understand child abuse and neglect. Child maltreatment is a major global health challenge that can result in severe consequences. Abused and neglected children are likely to develop psychiatric disorders, such as major depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and posttraumatic stress disorder. Understanding child maltreatment is expected to prevent and reduce victimization in children, adolescents, and their families.

Leveraging Administrative Data to Better Understand and Address Child Maltreatment: A Scoping Review of Data Linkage Studies.

This scoping review aimed to overview studies that used administrative data linkage in the context of child maltreatment to improve our understanding of the value that data linkage may confer for policy, practice, and research. We searched MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and ERIC electronic databases in June 2019 and May 2020 for studies that linked two or more datasets (at least one of which was administrative in nature) to study child maltreatment. We report findings with numerical and narrative summary. We included 121 studies, mainly from the United States or Australia and published in the past decade. Data came primarily from social services and health sectors, and linkage processes and data quality were often not described in sufficient detail to align with current reporting guidelines. Most studies were descriptive in nature and research questions addressed fell under eight themes: descriptive epidemiology, risk factors, outcomes, intergenerational transmission, predictive modelling, intervention/service evaluation, multi-sector involvement, and methodological considerations/advancements. Included studies demonstrated the wide variety of ways in which data linkage can contribute to the public health response to child maltreatment. However, how research using linked data can be translated into effective service development and monitoring, or targeting of interventions, is underexplored in terms of privacy protection, ethics and governance, data quality, and evidence of effectiveness.

Intergenerational trauma: Parental PTSD and parent-reported child abuse subtypes differentially relate to admission characteristics in the autism inpatient collection.

Autistic youth experience high rates of maltreatment. Little research has considered how distinct abuse dimensions differentially relate to meaningful outcomes, nor taken an intergenerational approach to consider how caregiver trauma and child maltreatment are related. This study sought to identify how parent-reported child abuse subtypes and parent posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) relate to each other and to admission characteristics upon inpatient service entry. Autistic youth (N=527; 79% White, 21.3% girls, mean age=12.94 years) participated in the autism inpatient collection. Parents reported on child abuse subtypes (physical, sexual, emotional) and their own PTSD, child behavior and emergency services, and parenting stress. Youth of parents with PTSD were nearly three times more likely to have parent-reported physical and emotional abuse. Autistic girls were more likely to experience parent-reported sexual abuse and a higher number of subtypes. Lower income related to higher rates of parent-reported child emotional abuse and parent PTSD. Emotional abuse associated with child behavior whereas both child physical and emotional abuse related to emergency services. Reported parent PTSD associated with child behavior and parental distress. When considered jointly, parent PTSD and number of parent-reported child abuse subtypes differentially related to child behavior and interacted to predict psychiatric hospitalizations. Intergenerational continuity of trauma is important to consider among autistic youth, and both parent-reported child abuse and parent PTSD relate to admission characteristics. Critical limitations include reliance on binary parent reports of child abuse and parent PTSD and the low representation of youth of minoritized identities. Implications for trauma-informed care are discussed. LAY SUMMARY: Autistic youth whose parents had reported posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) were nearly three times more likely to have experienced parent-reported physical and emotional abuse. Parent-reported child emotional abuse uniquely related to child behavioral concerns whereas both physical and emotional abuse related to higher emergency services. Parent PTSD also related to admission characteristics, showing that intergenerational continuity of trauma is critical to consider for understanding child maltreatment among autistic youth.

The Challenges of Working with Child Abuse and Neglect: Barriers to Disclosure and Intervention, Adverse Outcomes, and Perplexing Presentations

The Challenges of Working with Child Abuse and Neglect: Barriers to Disclosure and Intervention, Adverse Outcomes, and Perplexing Presentations

Assessment of knowledge, attitude, and practice of child abuse amongst health care professionals working in tertiary care hospitals of Karachi, Pakistan.

Introduction:UNICEF report (2004) states that a significant percentage of total child population under the age of 5 years suffered malnutrition. Child sexual abuse remains undiscussed across Pakistan. Health care professionals (HCPs) are usually the first notifiers of child abuse and are ethically obliged to manage and report it.Objective:This study was conducted to assess HCPs' response in dealing with patients of child abuse. With a better understanding, we can have a better outcome for the victims.Methods:A total of 101 participants filled out a structured questionnaire by HCPs working in three tertiary hospitals of Karachi i.e., Aga Khan University, National Institute of Child Health (NICH), and Civil Hospital. Data were entered into SPSS 19.0.Results:HCPs believed that young male relatives were thought to be most likely the offender, and that every child regardless of class is prone to get abused triggered by financial stressors and the absence of parents. Proper physical exams helped identify cases. A proper system of reporting was required in hospitals, but HCPs were reluctant to report the cases to authorities. There was a significant difference noted between public and private hospitals.Conclusion:Our findings indicate that HCPs have limited knowledge in defining various types of abuse and most were unaware of any reporting facility in hospitals. Senior HCPs as consultants have a better understanding of child abuse than nurses or interns. Mandatory reporting should be implicated so that prompt action could be taken. There could be a more successful outcome of managing a child abuse victim with proper training.

Child Abuse in the West Bank: Lessons Learnt from a Qualitative Study

In preparation for a survey using two international child abuse screening tools (ICAST‐P for parents and ICAST‐R for young people), a qualitative study explored the use of discipline and the understanding of child abuse, including sexual abuse, in Palestinian West Bank society, and investigated the appropriateness, in relation to clarity, acceptability and relevance, of the instruments. Qualitative research teams conducted 30 in‐depth interviews with mothers (10), young men (10) and young women (10). Our findings indicate that in a society where sexual abuse is not openly discussed and follow‐up services may be inadequate or inaccessible, inclusion of sexual abuse questions in a survey may be inappropriate and even harmful. However, by asking respondents about sexual abuse questions, rather than asking specifically about an individual's experiences, this study initiated discussion, which acknowledged the occurrence of sexual abuse of both boys and girls in the West Bank population. The findings warrant serious attention by educational, psychological, social and legal services in Palestine. Additionally, the findings caution against administering internationally designed survey instruments in low‐ and middle‐income countries (LMIC) before the potential implications related to cultural, social and political contexts have been carefully examined.Key Practitioner Messages Before administering an international child abuse screening tool, qualitative research must be conducted in order to understand the cultural context. Sexual abuse research must include questions on both male and female exposure to abuse. Conducting surveys on sensitive issues, such as sexual abuse, could have unforeseen negative consequences for both respondents and researchers. Qualitative research on sensitive topics may be sufficient in demonstrating the need for social interventions.

Child maltreatment data: A summary of progress, prospects and challenges

BackgroundIn 1996, the ISPCAN Working Group on Child Maltreatment Data (ISPCAN-WGCMD) was established to provide an international forum in which individuals, who deal with child maltreatment data in their respective professional roles, can share concerns and solutions. ObjectiveThis commentary describes some of the key features and the status of child maltreatment related data collection addressed by the ISPCAN-WGCMD. MethodsDifferent types of data collection methods including self-report, sentinel, and administrative data designs are described as well as how they address different needs for information to help understand child maltreatment and systems of prevention and intervention. ResultsWhile still lacking in many parts of the world, access to child maltreatment data has become much more widespread, and in many places a very sophisticated undertaking. ConclusionThe ISPCAN-WGCMD has been an important forum for supporting the continued development and improvement in the global effort to understand and combat child maltreatment thus contributing to the long term goals of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. Nevertheless, based on what has been learned, even greater efforts are required to improve data in order to effectively combat child maltreatment.

#ChildMaltreatment and Technology

Technology may seem like a friend one day, a foe another depending on how and why it is being used. In today’s world, we are inundated with social media, smart phones, tvs, and cars. Our ability to harness technology to make our lives a better place is a noble goal, however our ability to harness technology to enhance our research skills is absolutely necessary. The current paper explores the ways in which technology has been used and can be used to better understand child maltreatment and domestic violence. Overall, the message is clear, integrating technology-based research methods and practical approaches to helping vulnerable populations is one of this generations’ paradigm shifts. Technology coupled with sound research methodologies can help move us forward in our exploration and understanding of social problems and interventions.

A prospective, longitudinal cohort study: The impact of child maltreatment on delinquency among South Korean youth in middle and high school.

Cultural groups vary in how they understand child maltreatment and children's misbehavior and these cultural variations may impact the relationship between maltreatment and delinquency. This study investigated the impact of maltreatment on delinquency among South Korean youth. Using Korean Children and Youth Panel Survey data, this study followed two cohorts of middle (n = 2,275) and high (n = 2,272) school youth for their first self-reported delinquency over 4 years. Discrete-time hazard model was used for the analyses. Approximately 19% of middle and 11% of high school youth engaged in delinquency for 4 years. Maltreatment is associated with delinquency only for high school youth (HR = 1.42). In both cohorts, male youth with high levels of aggression were more likely to engage in delinquency. Additional risk factors included high levels of depression (HR = 1.36) and negative attitudes toward school rules (HR = 0.68), father's education less than high school (HR = 0.63), low levels of self-control (HR = 0.63). Findings also identified culturally unique factors that place Korean youth at heightened risk of delinquency: mother's education more than high school (HR = 1.49) and higher family income (HR = 1.93). Preventive interventions need to identify culturally specific risk factors for youth at increased risk of delinquency and thus these preventive interventions should be culturally tailored.

Predictors of Intention of Reporting Child Abuse among Emergency Nurses

PurposeThe current study investigates predictors of intention of reporting child abuse among emergency nurses in Korea. Design and MethodsA descriptive cross-sectional design was used. Data were collected from 200 emergency nurses in eight general hospitals in Korea through a questionnaire that asked about their general characteristics, knowledge about child abuse, perceived behavioral control, experiences of child abuse cases and reporting, and attitude toward child abuse. ResultsMultiple regression analysis indicated that attitude toward child abuse was the most influential predictor of the intention of reporting child abuse among Korea's emergency nurses. Knowledge about child abuse, and perceived behavioral control were also significant influencing predictors of reporting intention. These variables explained 22.1% of the variances in the intention of reporting child abuse among emergency nurses. ConclusionsReporting child abuse has not yet been established as a professional responsibility among Korea's emergency nurses. Increasing the level of awareness of the characteristics of child abuse and encouraging communication among nurses about the responsibility to report suspected child abuse will increase nurses' confidence to report. Practice ImplicationsTraining for reporting child abuse should be implemented in the near future to improve emergency nurses' understanding of child abuse. A support program is also needed to help emergency nurses build confidence in reporting child abuse as a professional responsibility.

Physical Punishment of Children

As at March 2016, 49 states had reformed their laws to clearly prohibit all corporal punishment of children (United Nations 1989) in all settings, including the home (Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children, n.d.) By January 2017 this number had reached 52. As the trend moves towards abolition, it is not an acceptable position for the United Kingdom (uk), the United States of America (usa) and Australia (Poulsen, 2015) to remain missing from that list. Whilst they are, effectively, a child (a person aged under 18 years of age), is the only person in all three countries that it is legal to hit. This article seeks to restate arguments in this area in a simple way to restart the debate in a modern context where understanding of child abuse is perhaps more widespread than it ever was in the past. On 20 October 2014 a report, Living on a Railway Line, was launched in the uk to mark the 25th anniversary of the signing of the un Convention on the Rights of the Child, which took place on 20 November 1989 (Rowland, 2014). It recommended removing the defence of reasonable chastisement in relation to the punishment of children. This article seeks to build on that agenda in a comparative context taking a three way perspective from the uk, the usa and Australia. It concludes that moves to prevent family violence are progressive but the position of a society where physical punishment of children is permitted yet child abuse is forbidden is not a tenable one. Reducing the number of cases of child abuse must begin with a clear message from society that physical punishment of children, whatever the circumstances, is unacceptable. The situation is serious enough to introduce aspirational legislation to remove justifications for physical punishment of children with the aim of modifying behaviour within society.

25 Years of Supporting Professionals in Safeguarding Children

25 Years of Supporting Professionals in Safeguarding Children

Unintended pregnancy as a predictor of child maltreatment

Whereas child maltreatment research has developed considerable evidence on post-natal risk-factors, pre-natal circumstances have been largely overlooked. The circumstances surrounding a pregnancy may considerably impact the environment in which later parenting behaviors occur. This study examines one of the earliest potentially identifiable risk-factors for child maltreatment: the intentions of a pregnancy. Utilizing both mother and father reports, this study focuses on maltreatment risk, as it relates with both parents’ perspectives of the pregnancy's intention. Drawing upon data from the Fragile Families and Child Well Being study, a longitudinal, birth cohort study, survey questions were used that asked parents, at the time of the birth, whether they considered abortion for the child. Unintended pregnancy demonstrates predictive value as one of the earliest identifiable risk-factors for child maltreatment. Regardless of whether the mother or father reported the unintended pregnancy, the relationship with maltreating behavior is largely the same, although for different maltreatment types. Mothers’ reports of unintended pregnancy are associated with psychological aggression, and neglect. Fathers’ reports of unintended pregnancy are associated with physical aggression. Fathers’ perspectives regarding pregnancy intentions matter just as much as mothers,’ and accounting for their perspectives could be important in understanding the maltreating behaviors of both parents. Identifiable in the earliest stages of caregiving, unintended pregnancy may be an important risk-factor in predicting and understanding child maltreatment.

Culture and context in understanding child maltreatment: Contributions of intersectionality and neighborhood-based research

In the early 1990s, the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect commissioned a series of reviews that appeared as the edited volume, Protecting Children from Abuse and Neglect (Melton & Barry, 1994). Using the 1994 review “Sociocultural Factors in Child Maltreatment” (Korbin, 1994) as a background, this article reconsiders culture and context in child maltreatment work. Since 1994, conditions promoting research and practice attention in this area include immigration-driven global increases in diverse, multicultural societies where different beliefs and practices meet (and clash); expanding purview of the human rights discourse to children; and the disproportionate and disparate representation of cultural, ethnic, and racial groups in child-welfare systems. Although research on child maltreatment has advanced in many ways over 20 years, the complexity of child maltreatment leaves many critical questions demanding further attention, culture and context among them. To help address these questions, we propose two approaches for future maltreatment research: intersectionality – the simultaneous examination of multiple identities (such as gender, race, and socioeconomic status) – as a framework for understanding the complexity of cultural factors; and neighborhood-based research as a means for understanding the context of child maltreatment from the perspective of an ecological framework.

Child maltreatment: a review of key literature in 2013.

This review summarizes new findings in the field of maltreatment, addressing epidemiology, physical abuse, abusive head trauma, sexual abuse, sequelae, and prevention. Many articles this year focus on establishing a framework for thinking about how to evaluate a child for maltreatment, the consequences of maltreatment, and the current understanding of prevention efforts. Interestingly, some research has helped to reinforce some concepts that were clinically appreciated, especially related to retinal hemorrhages. The volume, quality, and breadth of research relating to child maltreatment continue to improve and expand our understanding of child abuse pediatrics. These authors summarize notable advances in our understanding of child maltreatment over the past year.