Street children and crime in the UK: a case of abuse and neglect

It is claimed that many incidences of children running away from home and residential care involve issues around violence, bullying and child abuse and neglect. Surveys show that between 14 and 20% of children run away from home for at least one night and that 2% run away 10 times or more from home or a care setting. The potential reasons for running away are discussed together with the increased possibility for further victimization, delinquency and criminal behaviour. Four ‘streetwork projects’ that provide information and support to young runaways in the UK are described and their limitations discussed. It is proposed that counselling should be a part of intervention with street children and that trained counsellors/psychotherapists should be available free to these young people with social and emotional difficulties outside the usual health/social service provision. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Prevention of child abuse and neglect and improvements in child development

The aim of the study was to evaluate the implementation of a section in the Danish Social Assistance Act which encourages local authorities to offer families services in order to support children at risk of child maltreatment. The specific purpose of the present paper is to answer the question: Will the socio‐psychological development of children known to social services be improved when abuse and neglect are reduced? A sample of 1,138 children was drawn at random from new social services cases starting in 1998. Subsequently, about 80 per cent were evaluated by local caseworkers on the basis of a standardised questionnaire covering a period of four years. The most damaging family conditions seemed to be psychological maltreatment, physical/sexual abuse and neglect. Maltreated children were more often in a depressed state, unhappy, socially isolated, or they had an eating disorder, inadequate or under‐nutrition, suicidal tendencies, lack of concentration, or disturbed behaviour, compared to those children who were not exposed to abuse and neglect. If parental behaviour improved, effects on children's well‐being were also observed and positive changes in children's socio‐psychological development were identified. The questionnaire explored the impact of various interventions, including services geared to strengthen the child's network, but results indicated that the child displayed reduced risk of reactive symptoms only when parental behaviour improved and abuse and neglect were reduced. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From dependence to interdependence: towards better outcomes for young people leaving state care

Young people leaving out of home care are arguably one of the most vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in society. Compared to most young people, they face particular difficulties in accessing educational, employment, housing and other developmental and transitional opportunities. Care leavers have been found to experience significant health, social and educational deficits including homelessness, involvement in juvenile crime and prostitution, mental and physical health problems, poor educational and employment outcomes, inadequate social support systems and early parenthood. These poor outcomes reflect a number of factors including ongoing emotional trauma resulting from experiences of abuse and neglect prior to care, inadequate support while in care, accelerated transitions to adulthood and lack of guaranteed ongoing financial and other assistance to help facilitate this transition. Young people leaving care do not currently receive the ongoing support that a good parent would be expected to provide for their children. Using relevant literature from the USA, UK and Australia, this paper examines the factors that contribute to these poor outcomes and potential policy and practice reforms that may lead to better outcomes for care leavers. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Interagency practice in children with non‐organic failure to thrive: is there a gap between health and social care?

Failure to thrive is a child protection issue that crosses the boundaries between many professional groups. It is a condition that places children at risk of negative developmental, social, physical and emotional consequences, but it has complex causal roots. Although there are known to be links between neglect, emotional abuse and failure to thrive, health and social care providers have differing responses and interventions with children who are failing to thrive. An examination of recent Scottish statistics supports the argument that there may be a gap between health and social care that some children may be falling through. Evidence from the literature regarding interagency roles and responsibilities is ambiguous, and the different, albeit overlapping, professional constructions of failure to thrive may result in a gap in care for some vulnerable children. It is only by beginning to understand the crucial links between different professions that we can contribute towards effective interagency child protection policy and practice. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The Youngest Victims of Violence: Examining the Mental Health Needs of Young Children Who Are Involved in the Child Welfare and Juvenile Justice Systems

Children placed in the state’s custody due to neglect, abuse or maltreatment are one of America’s most vulnerable populations. Seventy-five percent of child victims of maltreatment are under the age of 12. Not only is their suffering a problem, these children are also at increased risk for delinquent behavior later in life. While research has documented the potential long-term consequences of child abuse and neglect, the mental health needs of young children involved in the foster care and juvenile justice systems have been largely overlooked. This study examined the social, emotional and behavioral difficulties of 670 children, age 3–11, who were involved in the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. Children in this study were living in residential treatment facilities, group homes, foster care homes or were receiving intensive home-based services. To assess the children’s mental health needs caregivers completed the parent form of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (Goodman, Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 38:581–586, 1997). The findings indicated a high prevalence of mental health problems, with 81 % of the children in the sample having a total difficulties score in the borderline or abnormal range and 90 % of the children having borderline or abnormal scores on at least one of the subscales (conduct, emotional, peer or attention problems). When characteristics such as gender, race and age were considered significant differences were found among boys and girls, Caucasian and minority children, and age groups. The findings highlight the importance of mental health assessment and interventions that are gender and culturally sensitive and developmentally appropriate.     

The Effect of Care Setting on Elder Abuse: Results from a Michigan Survey

This study compares abuse rates for elders age 60 and older in three care settings: nursing home, paid home care, and assisted living. The results are based on a 2005 random-digit dial survey of relatives of, or those responsible for, a person in long-term care. Nursing homes have the highest rates of all types of abuse, although paid home care has a relatively high rate of verbal abuse and assisted living has an unexpected high rate of neglect. Even when adjusting for health conditions, care setting is a significant factor in both caretaking and neglect abuses. Moving from paid home care to nursing homes is shown to more than triple the odds of neglect. Furthermore, when computing abuse rates by care setting for persons with specified health conditions, nursing homes no longer have the highest abuse rates.     

The Prevalence of Elder Abuse and Neglect of Older Adults Who Access Health and Social Services in London,Ontario, Canada

It is anticipated that older adults who seek professional intervention may be more at risk of abuse and neglect. This paper reports a prevalence study that focused on older adults who accessed health and social service organizations over a three month period. Respondents ranged from 55 to 100 with a mean age of 73.8 years. Over a quarter of the sample reported at least one form of violence during their lifespan. Higher prevalence rates than in the general population were found. Attempted material abuse was most frequent, followed by verbal abuse, physical abuse, unintentional neglect, actual material abuse, and intentional neglect.     

Patterns of child abuse in early childhood,a cohort study of the ‘children of the nineties’

In order to study patterns of child abuse in a pre‐school population, we have looked at children within a local cohort who have been investigated for abuse or placed on the Child Protection Register. This is part of a larger study examining risk and protective factors for child abuse. Of 14 138 children enrolled in the cohort, 329 were investigated for suspected child abuse and 163 were placed on the Child Protection Register over an 8‐year period, representing rates of 10.6 – 23.3 per 10 000 per year. Physical injury and neglect accounted for 31.7% and 29.0% of registrations in the study group respectively, these proportions being similar to those for children of all ages in Avon. In contrast, sexual abuse accounted for 10.9% compared to 21.1% for all ages. Emotional abuse represented just 2.8% of investigations but 25.1% of all registrations in the study group, compared to 14.4% of registrations for all ages. Two hundred and fifty‐five (1.8%) parents reported physical cruelty to their children by themselves or their partner at some stage in the first 3 years; 772 (5.4%) reported some emotional cruelty. The importance of emotional cruelty to children is increasingly being recognized by professionals, but even more so by parents, whose concerns relating to both physical and emotional cruelty are not being identified by current procedures. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

English perceptions of elder abuse

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate an English sample's perceptions on elder abuse, inflicted by adult children against their aging parents. Fifty participants (14 males, 46 females) provided examples of extreme, moderate, and mild elder abuse. As examples of extreme abuse, most participants mentioned neglect and physical aggression. Various forms of neglect and psychological abuse were their most common examples of moderate and mild abuse. References to physical aggression appeared most often as examples of extreme abuse rather than of moderate or mild abuse. Within these main categories, the specific subtypes most frequently mentioned by the sample included physical neglect, psychological neglect, verbal abuse, and deprivation. More females than males provided examples of financial abuse and physical neglect. Females were also more likely than males to list psychological neglect as an extreme form of abuse and disrespect as a form of mild abuse. At the moderate level, males referred to abuse relating to power more often than females. A positive relationship was found between age and the number of examples of physical neglect given at the moderate level and the number of examples of emotional abuse given at the mild level.     

Senator Breaux's Elder Justice Proposal of 2002 Executive Summary

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this exploratory study was to investigate an English sample's perceptions on elder abuse, inflicted by adult children against their aging parents. Fifty participants (14 males, 46 females) provided examples of extreme, moderate, and mild elder abuse. As examples of extreme abuse, most participants mentioned neglect and physical aggression. Various forms of neglect and psychological abuse were their most common examples of moderate and mild abuse. References to physical aggression appeared most often as examples of extreme abuse rather than of moderate or mild abuse. Within these main categories, the specific subtypes most frequently mentioned by the sample included physical neglect, psychological neglect, verbal abuse, and deprivation. More females than males provided examples of financial abuse and physical neglect. Females were also more likely than males to list psychological neglect as an extreme form of abuse and disrespect as a form of mild abuse. At the moderate level, males referred to abuse relating to power more often than females. A positive relationship was found between age and the number of examples of physical neglect given at the moderate level and the number of examples of emotional abuse given at the mild level.     

Policy and practice for response to foster families when child abuse or neglect is reported.

For reasons discussed in this article, it is in the nature of family foster care that allegations of abuse and/or neglect in foster homes will arise. How an agency acts before, during, and after these eventualities has long-lasting implications for the well-being of foster children and of foster parents and their own children, as well as for foster home recruitment.     

Comparing the health status of low-income children in and out of foster care

Children in foster care face poverty, family dysfunction, neglect, and abuse, with high rates of chronic health, emotional, and developmental problems. This study compared the overall health status of a group of children entering foster care with a group of Medicaid-eligible children living with their parents, matched for age and gender. It identified significantly more health and developmental problems in children in foster care than in the comparison group. Possible contributors to the higher percentage of problems among foster care children may be that the foster children have more problems related to the underlying risk factors resulting in placement, or that the foster care physicians conducted a more comprehensive assessment or had lower clinical thresholds. Further research is necessary to identify and treat the problems of this high-risk group.     

Elder Abuse by Daughters-in-Law in Japan

ABSTRACT

Little research on elder abuse was conducted in Japan until the Society for Study of Elder Abuse began its research in 1993. In two studies (1993, 1997), which surveyed social workers and home helpers, neglect was found to be the most common type of abuse, and daughters-in-law more often associated with neglect than spouses, sons, or daughters because of long term poor relationships. The research identified three reasons for the long term poor relationships and the factors that precipitated neglect and/or psychological abuse by daughters-in-law.     

Reaching the Breaking Point:

This study was designed to examine the phenomenon of mistreatment associated with mood disturbance of the caregiver in elder caregiving situations. The data were obtained from 110 caregivers aged 55 and over caring for a physically or mentally ill elder at home. A causal model was developed to examine the effects of personal and situational variables on mistreatment by abuse or neglect. Results indicated there were seven predictors of potential to mistreat: total mood disturbance, an external locus of control orientation, a low level of social support, income inadequacy, poor physical health, and two emotional coping strategies. These variables accounted for 46% of the variance.     

Association of Family Challenges with Self-esteem and Perceived Social Support among Indian Adolescents

The family micro-system is important in the development of any individual. Defects or deviations in its normative functioning affect the development of a child. These defects may include child maltreatment or abuse, be it physical, sexual, emotional, or neglect. Within this domain, in our view, there does not appear to be adequate development related to the understanding of, and intervention for, emotional abuse. Emotional abuse extends from explicit acts to invisible causative factors of neglect or humiliation. In this work, through quantitative and qualitative empirical evidence, we have attempted to associate family challenges with self-esteem (SE) and perceived social support. The study was carried out on a sample of early-adolescent high school students in the state of Kerala, India. We found a significant difference in SE between adolescents who reported challenges at home and those who did not. We also observed the limited role of age as a determinant in this differentiation. The current work serves to significantly supplement the understanding of causal relationships in the discourse on emotional abuse in the context of child development.     

Is Elder Abuse and Neglect a Social Phenomenon? Data from the First National Prevalence Survey in Israel

This article discusses findings from the First National Survey on Elder Abuse and Neglect in Israel, conducted during 2004–2005 under the sponsorship of The Association for Planning and Development of Services for the Aged in Israel (ESHEL) and the National Insurance Institute. The goals were to examine the prevalence and severity of various forms of abuse and neglect from the victims' perspective, to examine correlates and predictors, and to develop profiles of elders at risk. Data were collected through personal interviews from a national representative sample of community urban dwellers age 65 and older, using cluster sampling techniques and sampling proportionately both Arab and Jewish elders. The sample was composed of 392 males and 650 females, 89% were Jews and 11% were non-Jews. The instrument included sociodemographic data, health and activities of daily living (ADL), a measure of safety, and a battery to examine seven types of abuse (physical, emotional, verbal, limitation of freedom, financial exploitation, sexual, and neglect). Findings indicate that 18.4% of the respondents were exposed to at least one type of abuse during the 12 months preceding the interview, the highest form being verbal abuse followed by financial exploitation. The rates were quite similar between Jews and Arabs. Women were more exposed to physical violence and Arab women were the most vulnerable. Physical, emotional, verbal, limitation of freedom, and sexual abuse occurred mostly among partners. The rates of physical, sexual, and limitation of freedom abuse, however, were relatively low. Financial exploitation was mostly inflicted by adult children. Partners as perpetrators had more chronic health problems and physical and mental disabilities. Children as perpetrators were unemployed, had various mental health problems, and were substance abusers, often in a process of separation or divorce and tended to live with the victims. Neglect in answering primary needs was found among 20% of the sample, regarding the 3 months preceding the interview. This high rate might be related to elders tending to avoid seeking help or sharing their needs with their families. When victims sought help it was mostly from medical and health services. The findings thus corroborate that elder abuse and neglect is a social problem in Israeli society and has to be addressed in policy discourse and service developments.     

The role of child care in supporting the emotion regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers

Infants and toddlers who experience physical abuse and/or neglect are at a severe risk for disruptions to emotion regulation. Recent prevention and treatment efforts have highlighted center-based child care as an important setting for providing support to the needs of these children, as child care centers are already an existing point of entry for reaching high-risk families. Guided by ecological theory, this review draws on the maltreatment and child care literatures to consider the opportunity for child care centers, specifically teacher-child interactions within the classroom, to support the unique regulatory needs of maltreated infants and toddlers. Existing research on the effects of child care for children facing other types of risk, as well as research with maltreated preschool children, provides a foundation for considering the role child care may play for infants and toddlers, whose emotion regulation skills are just emerging. More research is needed regarding teachers' roles in facilitating effective emotional experiences in the classroom that meet the unique needs of maltreated children. Additionally, early childhood teacher training that focuses on infant/toddler mental health and a trauma-informed perspective of care, as well as structuring child care centers as communities of support for high risk families, all may aid child care centers in better serving this vulnerable population.     

Elder mistreatment in urban India: a community based study

This study examined the extent and correlates of elder mistreatment among 400 community dwelling older adults aged 65 and above in Chennai, India. The prevalence rate of mistreatment was 14%. Chronic verbal abuse was the most common followed by financial abuse and the rate of physical abuse and neglect was similar. Among the mistreated, exactly half of them had experienced more than one type of mistreatment (multifaceted-mistreatment). With the exception of financial abuse, a significantly greater number of women experienced verbal and physical abuse as well as neglect compared to men. Adult children, daughters-in-law, spouses, and sons-in-law were the prominent perpetrators. The mistreated older adults were more depressed and less satisfied with life than those who were not mistreated. Logistic regression analysis revealed gender, social support, and subjective rating of physical health as significant factors associated with abuse.     

Turkey: a pilot study of elder mistreatment in a convenience sample

Attitudes towards elder abuse were explored through a survey on International Perspectives on Family Violence and Abuse in a Turkish convenience sample of 25 females and 14 males, ranging in age from 22 to 58. Participants gave examples of behaviors considered in their culture to be extremely abusive, moderately abusive, and mildly abusive from an adult child toward his or her older parent. Responses were coded into four major categories of abuse, each of which had several subcategories: psychological aggression (including the subcategories of verbal aggression, emotional abuse, disrespect, disobedience, power assertion, blame, and imprisonment), neglect (including physical neglect, psychological neglect, abandonment, and putting the older individual into a nursing home), physical aggression (including beating and hitting), and mistreatment related to goods and services (including economic demands, economic withholding, and labor). The most common examples of extreme abuse were neglect, particulary physical neglect, followed by physical abuse. At the moderate and mild levels, various forms of psychological aggression were most commonly mentioned. The only significant gender difference was that men listed more instances of verbal aggression as examples of extreme abuse than women. A positive correlation was found between age and the number of abandonment examples at the extreme level. Results were interpreted from a cultural perspective.