Child Abuse and Neglect

Child abuse includes all forms of physical and emotional mistreatment, sexual abuse, and neglect of a child’s basic needs, which results in actual or potential harm to a child’s physical, mental, and emotional health. Exploitation of children is also a form of abuse and includes trafficking for sexual or economic purposes, and recruitment of children into armed forces.

An abused child may experience many forms of mistreatment in any one incident or over time; for example, emotional harm is a pervading factor in all types of abuse. The abuser may be a family member, a stranger, another child, or someone responsible for a child's well-being, such as a teacher or caretaker.

Children in every society are vulnerable to abuse, gender based violence, and exploitation, however children without parental care and those in high risk environments such as conflict areas, refugee camps, on the street, or in institutions, are particularly exposed to violence, denial of their basic human rights, and deprivation. All abuse has its origins in power imbalance and therefore is typically associated with fear, secrecy, and control. This makes identifying and speaking out about abuse very difficult for children, family members, the community and social services, particularly when it is committed within the privacy of the home.

Child abuse can cause physical and psychosocial problems, including HIV/AIDS infection, and is particularly damaging when repeated over a period of time. Children may manifest abuse via destructive or withdrawn behaviours, developmental delays, injuries or other health problems. The effects of abuse will vary from child to child and depend on the source, type and extent of the abuse, the child’s developmental stage and their disposition or resilience.

The process of identifying and responding to abuse requires skilled interventions in order to prevent further harm to the child, and will typically include police, medical, psychological, and social services in order to address the safety, physical, and emotional needs of the affected children. Any care plan must be in the best interests of the child and protect them and their siblings from harm. This will include consideration of the additional risks of abuse that are present for children in institutions and care placements. Such closed environments are extremely susceptible to abuse since they are frequently isolated, insufficiently regulated, and lacking in adequate supervision and safe reporting procedures. It is the role of social services to screen and monitor all child placements, including institutional, kinship, and foster care, to ensure the child’s safety and well-being.

It is the responsibility of the whole community to protect its children. Education and community awareness for children and adults on the risks, signs of abuse, and responses is vital for children without parental care and those in high risk situations, such as during a conflict or displacement when sexual violence, exploitation, and recruitment into armed forces are prevalent.

The literature in this section describes the types of abuse in more detail, including gender based violence, and provides example child protection procedures, policy papers, and other intervention tools.

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Child, Family, and Case Characteristics Associated With Reentry Into Out-of-Home Care Among Children and Youth Involved With Child Protection Services

Samantha M. Brown, Rebecca Orsi, Pang Ching Bobby Chen - Child Maltreatment, 20 Aug 2019

The aims of this study were to examine rates of reentry and risk factors associated with reentry into out-of-home care among children and youth involved in the child protection (reported for abuse/neglect) and youth-in-conflict (reported for behavioral issues) programs.

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Systematic Review of Community- and Home-Based Interventions to Support Parenting and Reduce Risk of Child Maltreatment Among Families With Substance-Exposed Newborns

Allison L. West, Sarah Dauber, Laina Gagliardi, Leeya Correll, Alexandra Cirillo Lilli, Jane Daniels - Child Maltreatment, 13 Aug 2019

The purpose of this systematic review is to synthesize existing research on community- and home-based interventions designed to improve parenting and reduce risk of maltreatment for families with substance-exposed newborns (SENs), applying a program logic framework.

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Global deficits in executive functioning are transdiagnostic mediators between severe childhood neglect and psychopathology in adolescence

Mark Wade, Charles H. Zeanah, Nathan A. Fox, and Charles A. Nelson - Psychological Medicine, 08 Aug 2019

This study examined whether global deficits in executive functioning (EF) mediate the association between severe childhood neglect and general v. specific psychopathology in adolescence. The sample consisted of 188 children from the Bucharest Early Intervention Project, a longitudinal study examining the brain and behavioral development of children reared in Romanian institutions and a comparison group of never-institutionalized children.

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2019 Annual report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children

Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children , 30 Jul 2019

This report of the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Violence against Children highlights action taken at national and regional levels towards realizing the right of every child to protection from violence.

Implementation of an Early Preventive Intervention Programme for Child Neglect: SafeCare

Ignacia Arruabarrena, Joaquín de Paul, and María Cañas - Psicothema, 30 Jul 2019

This paper presents the results of the first pilot implementation in Spain of SafeCare, a home visiting evidence-based programme for the prevention and treatment of child neglect in families with children aged 0-5 years old.

Family Profiles in Child Neglect Cases Substantiated by Child Protection Services

Marie-Ève Clément, Annie Bérubé, Mélissa Goulet, Sonia Hélie - Child Indicators Research, 29 Jul 2019

This study was conducted to address some of the gaps in the current literature by identifying, in a more comprehensive manner, family profiles and service referrals in cases of child neglect investigated and substantiated by Child Protection Services (CPS) in Quebec.

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Family Profiles in Child Neglect Cases Substantiated by Child Protection Services

Marie-Ève Clément, Annie Bérubé, Mélissa Goulet & Sonia Hélie - Child Indicators Research, 29 Jul 2019

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Healing through Connection: An Aboriginal Community Designed, Developed and Delivered Cultural Healing Program for Aboriginal Survivors of Institutional Child Sexual Abuse

Carlina Black, Margarita Frederico, Muriel Bamblett - The British Journal of Social Work, 09 Jul 2019

This open access article details a culturally informed approach by sharing the findings of a Cultural Healing Program (CHP) designed, developed and delivered by an Aboriginal Community Controlled Organisation. The program was for Aboriginal survivors of institutional child sexual abuse who had also experienced cultural abuse having been forcibly removed from their families as children and in the process disconnected from their communities, culture and land.

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Early Deprivation and Children’s Emotional Development: A Developmental Perspective

Nicole B. Perry & Megan R. Gunnar - Handbook of Emotional Development, 05 Jul 2019

In this chapter of the Handbook of Emotional Development, the authors discuss animal models that support developmental theories underscoring the importance of the caregiver–infant relationship for emotional development, explore how varying degrees of neglect may be differentially associated with subsequent emotional outcome, and review empirical work in this area from a developmental perspective by addressing how early neglect may impact the development of biological and behavioral mechanisms that underlie emotional functioning across multiple developmental periods.

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Issues in Defining and Measuring Supervisory Neglect and Conceptualizing Prevention

Barbara A. Morrongiello & Amanda Cox - Child Indicators Research, 04 Jul 2019

There is no uniform definition of supervisory neglect and this creates challenges for measurement and identifying caregivers at risk. In this article definitional and measurement issues are discussed, as well as challenges in conceptualizing prevention.

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