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.