Why should child welfare pay more attention to emotional maltreatment?

A significant body of research indicates that emotional maltreatment (EMT) is harmful to children, resulting in long-term negative impacts on emotional and behavioral development. The child welfare system's focus on physical abuse, physical neglect, and sexual abuse has led a relative lack of attention to EMT. Reported rates of EMT vary widely across states – ranging from 0.2% to 44.9% in a recent national report on child maltreatment – indicating that it is not being measured consistently. This paper uses data collected by the Longitudinal Studies of Child Abuse and Neglect (LONGSCAN) to (1) describe the nature and characteristics of emotional maltreatment experienced by 846 LONGSCAN youth across time, and (2) describe the relation between four subtypes of emotional maltreatment (psychological safety and security, acceptance and self-esteem, autonomy, and restriction) and child trauma symptoms and risk behaviors at age 18. Exposure to EMT was related to increased trauma symptoms and risky behaviors. EMT is common, identifiable, harmful, and potentially preventable; and a better understanding of it will help to inform the provision of effective child welfare and mental health services to children and their families. Findings suggest a need for greater understanding of parental behaviors, and the motivations behind them, that result in emotionally harmful outcomes for children, as well as a better understanding of appropriate interventions for children who experience various types of EMT.     

Decision-Making processes in the child protection system: A comparative study between students and professionals in Portugal

Abstract

This research aims to achieve a better understanding of factors that influence the assessments and decisions of professionals and students about the possibility to remove a child at risk from her birth family. The study also analyzes the influence of the attitudes of the child’s mother on that decision. It was used a questionnaire based on a case vignette of alleged child maltreatment. Compared with students, professionals were more pro-removal, more in favor of reunification and parents’ participation in the decisions, and had a higher assessment of emotional abuse, and emotional and physical neglect. Mother’s wish did not show to have any impact in the two samples regarding maltreatment, risk assessments, and intervention recommendations.     

Economic predictors of child maltreatment in an Australian population-based birth cohort

A correlation between socioeconomic disadvantage and child maltreatment has long been observed, but the drivers of this association are poorly understood. We sought to estimate the effects of economic factors on risk of child maltreatment after adjusting for other known influences using the Australian Temperament Project, a population-based birth cohort of 2443 individuals and their parents. We used logistic regression to estimate associations of childhood economic factors (parental education, occupation, and unemployment; type of housing; and retrospective perception of poverty) with retrospective reports of perceived child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and witnessing of domestic violence), controlling for demographic factors, parental mental health and substance use, and child health. We then used these estimates to approximate the proportions of child maltreatment—population attributable fractions—that are theoretically preventable by addressing childhood economic disadvantage. Economic factors were associated with all types of child maltreatment. For the most part, these associations diminished only partially when controlling for noneconomic confounders, supporting hypotheses of causal relationships. Jointly, economic factors were significant predictors of physical abuse, sexual abuse, and witnessing of domestic violence but not of emotional abuse or neglect. Retrospective perceptions of childhood poverty were, in particular, strongly associated with most forms of child maltreatment but not with sexual abuse after accounting for other economic factors. We estimated that 27% of all child maltreatment was jointly attributable to economic factors. These findings suggest that strategies that reduce economic disadvantage are likely to hold significant potential to reduce the prevalence of child maltreatment.     

Child deaths attributed to abuse and neglect: An empirical study

This study of 267 child deaths associated with abuse or neglect in Texas during 1975 through 1977 suggests a number of indicators for identifying potential child fatalities. Families where abuse or neglect is implicated in a child fatality are characterized by small family size, young parents, and under-utilization of community support services. Over three-fourths of the families in the study had never come to the attention of the state's child protective services agency. In addition, when fathers were present in the home, they were as likely to be involved in the abuse or neglect as mothers. Neglect was implicated in the death of a child as often as abuse. The study suggests the need for further examination of child fatality profiles associated with abuse and neglect and increased community outreach efforts to provide support to high-risk families, The study also has implications for social policy decisions, particularly in relation to efforts to resist attempts to exclude neglect from child protective service responsibility.     

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.     

Child Sexual Abuse Workers’ Emotional Experiences of Working Therapeutically in the Western Cape, South Africa

South African child sexual abuse workers active in low-income communities bear witness to stories of sexual and physical abuse, neglect, pervasive deprivation, and violence. North American, British, and European workers’ emotional experiences have been captured in the literature, and a gap remains to be filled by those of their South African colleagues. This research aims to focus on the emotional experiences of social workers who engage therapeutically with sexually abused children in the Helderberg basin of the Western Cape, and resonate in some way with readers working in situations of poverty and trauma in other parts of the world. This study employed an explorative inductive research method, and followed a critical realist and contextual constructionist approach. Multiple-case study data collection took place by means of semi-structured interviews with social workers who engage therapeutically with sexually abused children. Data were examined by means of thematic analysis, and psychoanalytic theory was employed to analyse defences that surfaced during interviews. There were similarities in emotional experiences between South African participants and their abovementioned counterparts. The research also identified salient features of working with child sexual abuse in South Africa. The emotional experiences of doing such work, coupled with participants’ ways of managing sexually abused children’s material, gave rise to possible vicarious traumatisation symptoms and allowed for a psychoanalytic understanding to be put forward. The research also reports on useful measures that might enable individuals to continue interventions. To enable ongoing effective therapeutic engagement, social workers should have access to opportunities for acknowledging countertransferences and processing dynamic material defended against. The research contributes to knowledge of working in South Africa by exploring the emotional experiences of those who help sexually abused children daily, and by investigating the psychological impact prolonged therapeutic engagement has on workers active in Western Cape low-income communities.     

Child Health and Family Emotional Climate in Early Childhood

This study tied together literature from the fields of family sociology, child development, and social work to investigate the impact of child health and developmental challenges on family emotional climate spanning the first 5 years following birth. To measure emotional climate, three family determinants (interparental discord, parenting concordance, and parenting challenges), which served as either the product or process for six empirical models of interest, were examined. Overall, children’s poor health and development could open up more opportunities for parental discord, undermine parental ability to compromise, and increase challenges in parenting. Practice implications aimed at strengthening family ties were also discussed.     

The role of observation in the assessment of child neglect

This paper focuses on physical and emotional neglect from a social work perspective. Neglect is the highest category of registration on Child Protection Registers in England, and is therefore a significant preoccupation for social work. However, historically, social workers have found child neglect a difficult area of practice. In this paper, we suggest that neglect is best understood as an absence of care, that is, a breakdown in the relationship between the primary carer and child which results in difficulties in offering reliable and adequate care. One focus of assessment in cases of child neglect, therefore, needs to be on ascertaining the nature and degree of relationship failure. We set out a framework to inform such assessments which critically examines the relationship between primary carer and child/ren. We note that discussion of neglect often involves criticism of women/mothers, and seek to develop an approach to child neglect which challenges stereotypical ideas about gender and caring, ideas which can lead to inappropriate intervention and to mother‐blaming. Consideration is given to operationalizing this framework of ideas. Intentional, structured observation is identified as a particularly useful tool in accurately assessing the complexities of the mother – child relationship, and the discussion considers observation's contribution to the assessment of neglect at a number of different levels. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

The prevalence and nature of abuse and neglect in children under four: a national survey

This paper reports the results from a Danish national survey of child abuse and neglect. Data were obtained by a written questionnaire sent to all home health visitors. All newborn Danish children receive visits by a home health visitor several times during their first year of life. For children in need of special care for social reasons the visits may continue until school age (at 6 or 7 years). The questionnaire included four checklists of signs of abuse and neglect. The home health visitors were asked to record what they had actually observed visiting the children in their homes. Eighty‐three per cent (covering about 80% of all newborns) answered the questionnaire. The objective was to establish a scientific based framework that could be used to guide preventive efforts. Ten per cent of all children under 1 year of age may be characterized as children in need of special care for social reasons, the most frequent single reason being reliance on social assistance, alcohol abuse or violence against the mother. A minimum of 4% of infants are subjected to broadly defined abuse or neglect from one or more of the four categories: physical abuse, physical neglect, emotional abuse and emotional neglect, physical and emotional neglect being the most frequent and physical maltreatment the most rare. Copyright © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An analysis of children and young people's calls to ChildLine about abuse and neglect: a study for the Scottish Child Protection Review

In 2001 a young child, who was known to child protection agencies, was murdered by her stepfather. Following a recommendation of an inquiry into her death, a ministerial multidisciplinary review of child protection across Scotland was carried out. The review aimed to promote the reduction of abuse or neglect of children and to improve the services for children who experience abuse or neglect. It was carried out by a multidisciplinary team and the report made 16 recommendations. The review was informed by a series of sub‐projects. This paper describes one sub‐project that aimed to collect the views of children and young people who might have been abused but might not have had contact with child protection agencies. The study was carried out in conjunction with ChildLine Scotland. Call data for one year were made available for quantitative analysis. Qualitative analysis was carried out on the counsellors' notes on all calls relating to abuse and neglect taken during a 2‐week period. Children described signi?cant levels of abuse and neglect. Many had told no‐one of the abuse and in particular had not contacted child protection agencies. The paper considers the implications of the ?ndings for the child protection system. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Working with neglected children and their families

Child neglect has proved a particularly difficult area for social work to address. In the first part of the paper a number of reasons for this are discussed. We go on to suggest that chronic child neglect characteristically involves the breakdown or absence of a relationship of care. Therefore, the social work response needs to include a focus on the relationship difficulties between parent and child which manifest as either an unwillingness or inability on the part of the primary carer to offer reliable, adequate care, and on broader relationship difficulties within the family. In arguing for an approach that pays attention to the intra-personal and relational dynamics of neglect, we draw specifically on attachment theory and consider how Ainsworth's (1978) typology of attachment patterns can shed light on parenting styles and patterns of family functioning associated with chronic neglect. We use the concept of the 'internal working model' to develop an understanding of the ways in which family members understand and live out their relationships—with each other and with the worker. We conclude by suggesting that this relational approach requires an ability on the part of the social worker to work both with and within relationships, and look at the contribution that a critically informed relationship-based approach can make to work with families where child neglect occurs.     

Street Children in Nairobi and the African Cultural Ideology of Kin-Based Support System. Change and Challenge

Poverty, rapid urbanization, population growth rate, family instability and the declining role of the extended family system are among the key factors responsible for the prevalence of child abuse and neglect in Nairobi. In this state of flux, cases of children who have been battered, abandoned, abused and neglected by their families or displaced as a result of armed conflict in the region have increased at an astounding pace over the past several years. One out of every three children from poor urban families in Kenya is regularly battered or subjected to other forms of maltreatment by a parent or other family members, the public and the authorities. Basically, there are two levels of abuse and neglect. There is abuse and neglect which children experience at home and which drives them onto the streets. There is also abuse and neglect which street children endure while on the streets. This paper discusses some of the ways in which abuse and neglect affect the lives of street children and families. It also highlights the plight of a sample of street children as exemplified by the kinds of difficulties which they endure while on the street. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Assessing child abuse: the TRIADS checklist

Although all types of abuse injure children, psychological abuse is most elusive and damaging on many levels, particularly levels of attachment, affective development, and the evolution of empathetic capacities that allow a child to receive and transmit, in an appropriate manner, emotional information between people. Some think that this type of psychological abuse coupled with neglect and perhaps early physical abuse impairs the child's total capacity to respond emotionally (Brothers, 1989). Essentially, empathy is a matter of a complex informational processing activity. Alexithymia, an inability to perceive the emotions of others, has been linked in primate studies to deprivation (Sackette, 1966). This awareness of the impact of environmental factors on the development of critical emotional and ultimately interpersonal regulating mechanisms underscores the need to attend to all aspects of child abuse.     

Can child fatalities,end product of child abuse,be prevented?

Study of a sample of child abuse/neglect families where a child fatality has occurred suggests several indicators for identifying potential child fatalities. In contrast to families where child abuse is not followed by a child fatality, child abuse cases where a fatality does occur are characterized by abuse of more than one child in the family, a more chaotic family constellation, the mother as perpetrator of the abuse, and high levels of both human and milieu stress. The study also identifies gaps in services to sample families and suggests changes.     

Sexual abuse: giving help to the children: A practical guide for concerned proiessionals

SUMMARY. This paper has been written for those professional workers who may have to deal with situations involving child sexual abuse, while having only limited knowledge and training. There are two sections. The first examines some of the key issues needed to increase understanding, and includes a preliminary discussion on the emotional impact of sexual abuse on Professional workers. Following a clarification of definitions, family aspects and incidence, this section focuses first on the child victims and then on the perpetrator. Finally, there is an examination of the consequences of child sexual abuse. The second section gives guidance on how a professional worker might respond if confronted with a case—from recognising the signs to facilitating disclosure. Suggestions are made about supporting the child during the investigation and heaving the child afterwards.     

Emotional harm and neglect: the legal response

This paper reports on a study of the extent to which child protection applications brought to the Melbourne Children's Court in Victoria, Australia, were based on emotional/psychological harm or neglect of a child and what factors were presented as evidence of harm or neglect. The study examined records of 208 court‐ordered pre‐trial conferences heard in the court between February and July 2002. What was found was that, although cases involving emotional abuse have increased in terms of child protection applications, they remain cases that are difficult to decide. While in 1998/9 emotional harm was a ground in 25.7% of child protection matters completed in the Family Division of the Children's Court of Victoria, legal decision‐makers are reluctant to make a finding of child abuse in these cases because there is less accuracy in the determination of emotional harm and negligible legal criteria available to guide decision‐making. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Abuse of elderly male client: efforts and experiences in rural and urban adult protective services

Elder abuse has not been viewed as seriously as child abuse because of the emotional sensibilities attached to child abuse. Although elder abuse is experienced disproportionately by women, men also are in need of protection and engagement. An important factor for understanding the work with elderly men is the social construction of manhood. Both urban and rural settings recognize this as a significant starting point to engage men in services. This paper describes the efforts in both rural and urban Adult Protective Service agencies to identify and work with abused elderly men from a strengths and solution-focused perspective.     

The Role of Early Maladaptive Schemas in the Appearance of Psychological Symptomatology in Adult Women Victims of Child Abuse

ABSTRACT

Child abuse affects people’s ways of thinking, feeling, and observing the world, resulting in dysfunctional beliefs and maladaptive schemas. Thus, consequences of child abuse may persist during adulthood. Therefore, the aim of this study was to analyze the psychological consequences (anxiety, phobic anxiety, depression, and hopelessness) of different types of maltreatment (physical, sexual, and emotional abuse and physical and emotional neglect) and to study the role of early maladaptive schemas in the onset of symptomatology in adult female victims of child abuse. The sample consisted of 75 women referred by associations for treatment of abuse and maltreatment in childhood. Sexual abuse was the type of maltreatment that was most strongly related to most dysfunctional symptomatology, followed by emotional abuse and physical abuse, whereas physical neglect was the least related. Also, early maladaptive schemas were found to correlate with child abuse and dysfunctional symptomatology. Finally, early maladaptive schemas mediated the relationship between sexual abuse and dysfunctional symptomatology when the effect of other types of abuse was controlled. These results may provide important guidance for clinical intervention.     

Multi‐type maltreatment and the long‐term adjustment of adults

Multi‐type maltreatment refers to the experience of more than one form of child maltreatment (sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological maltreatment, neglect and witnessing family violence). Researchers have largely ignored the presence of other types of child abuse and neglect when examining the adjustment problems associated with a particular form of maltreatment. The association between ‘multi‐type maltreatment’ and adjustment was explored in the current study. Retrospective data were obtained on (a) the degree to which maltreatment types co‐occurred, (b) childhood family characteristics and (c) adjustment problems in adulthood in an Australian self‐selected community sample (N=175). As hypothesized, a large degree of overlap was reported in the experience of the five types of maltreatment. Family characteristics—particularly family cohesion and adaptability—discriminated between respondents reporting single‐type and multi‐type maltreatment. Greater adjustment problems were associated with reports of a larger number of different maltreatment types. Multi‐type maltreatment should be recognized as a crucial aspect of the nature and impact of child maltreatment and considered in the development of programmes for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Exposure to Economically Abusive Tactics Among Adolescent Girls in the Child Welfare System

Economically abusive tactics (EAT), including financial exploitation, economic control, and employment sabotage, have been increasingly identified in intimate relationships. Negative outcomes include increased material hardship, increased depression, and co-occurrence with physical and emotional abuse. However, there is no known research on adolescent exposure to EATs, or its relationship with other well-being indicators. This exploratory study examined the extent of witnessing EAT among adolescent girls involved in child welfare, along with relationships between witnessing EAT and exposure to physical violence, risk of mental health challenges, and current financial self-efficacy. Interviews were conducted with 105 girls ages 12–19. Results indicated that nearly half witnessed moderate to high EATs. Rates of EATs were significantly higher among girls who witnessed physical violence. At the bivariate level, witnessing EATs was correlated with increased rates of physical and emotional abuse, physical neglect, and number of types of trauma, as well as higher levels of depression and PTSD and decreased financial self-efficacy. Implications include the need for measurement refinement, screening, prevention, and intervention for child welfare-involved girls, and continued research regarding EAT exposure.