Child Abuse And Neglect

Question 1

Outline the historical prevalence of child abuse and neglect

Answer 1

Early laws focused on non-parental assault Mary Ellen, Age 9 discovery of her living in servitude and regular beatings – no action because beatings occurred in private – no action unless the child complained.

• SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) lawyers argued on her behalf that children should be accorded the same rights as animals.
• In 1875, the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was established (9 years after the formation of The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals).

Question 2

What is child neglect

Answer 2

Child neglect is the continued failure by a parent or caregiver to provide a child with the basic things needed for his or her proper growth and development, such as food, clothing, shelter, medical and dental care and adequate supervision.

Question 3

What is sexual abuse

Answer 3

Sexual abuse is when someone involves a child or young person in a sexual activity by using their power over them or taking advantage of their trust.

Question 4

What is physical abuse

Answer 4

Physical abuse is a non-accidental injury or pattern of injuries to a child caused by a parent, caregiver or any other person.

Question 5

Age of a child

Answer 5

A young person aged 0–17. For some states and territories, this includes unborn children.

Question 6

Age of infant

Answer 6

Child under 1 year of age

Question 7

What is a child concern report

Answer 7

Report to a community services department about concerns for a child, where there is no indication that a child might have been, or is at risk of being, harmed through abuse or neglect. This might include concerns about a child’s welfare related to the quality of their home environment, or the standard of care that they are receiving.

Question 8

What is investigation

Answer 8

The process whereby the relevant department obtains more detailed information about a child who is the subject of a notification received between 1 July 2019 and 30 June 2020. Departmental staff assess the harm, or degree of harm, to the child, and their protective needs. An investigation includes sighting or interviewing the child where it is practical to do so.

Question 9

What is substantiation of notification

Answer 9

Child protection notification made to relevant authorities during the current year that was investigated and where it was concluded that there was reasonable cause to believe that the child had been, was being, or was likely to be, abused, neglected, or otherwise harmed

Question 10

Outline the types of abuse or neglect

Answer 10

One of the 4 types, or categories, of substantiations: physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, and neglect. Each category includes findings of actual harm or significant risk of harm. Where more than 1 type of abuse or neglect has occurred, the substantiation is classified to the type likely to be the most severe in the short term, or to place the child most at risk in the short term, or, if such an assessment is not possible, classified to the most obvious form of abuse or neglect.

Question 11

what is emotional abuse

Answer 11

Any act by a person having the care of a child that results in the child suffering any kind of significant emotional deprivation or trauma. Children affected by exposure to family violence are also included In this category.

Question 12

What is neglect

Answer 12

Any serious act or omission by a person having the care of a child that, within the bounds of cultural tradition, constitutes a failure to provide conditions that are essential for the healthy physical and emotional development of a child.

Question 13

What is physical abuse

Answer 13

Any non-accidental physical act inflicted upon a child by a person having the care of a child.

Question 14

What is sexual abuse

Answer 14

Any act by a person having the care of a child that exposes the child to, or involves the child in, sexual processes beyond his or her understanding, or contrary to accepted community standards.

Question 15

What are the most common types of abuse

Answer 15

emotional abuse, physical abuse, neglect

Question 16

who is most often reported too

Answer 16

police

Question 17

Overall, infant and child mortality rates in NSW are _____, in both natural and injury-related causes.

Answer 17

declining

Question 18

Unlike other causes of death, the rate of suicide among children aged 10 to 17 years in NSW has significantly _____ over the past 15 years

Answer 18

increased

Question 19

Outline child protecting in the time of COVID-19

Answer 19

Risk factors for child abuse, including income and housing stress, parental mental health, substance use, and domestic violence
- Notifications to child protection services fell during first wave but increased once restrictions eased

Question 20

Outline the research of Falster et al., 2020

Answer 20

• Found that 1 in 7 children in New South Wales had 1 or more notifications to CPS by age 5 years
• By age 5 years, maltreatment was substantiated in 1 in 30 children and 1 in 70 children were placed at least once in an OOHC placement.
• As 2 in 5 children reported to CPS by age 5 years were first reported by age 1 year, an effective public health response may leverage routine health system contacts in the antenatal and postnatal periods to engage and support vulnerable families in a non stigmatizing way to prevent maltreatment

Question 21

who are the abusers

Answer 21

• No ‘abusive personality syndrome’ has been discovered.
• Alcohol and drugs are risk factors.
• Many abusive parents are emotionally insecure and attribute their child’s irritability and independence to their children being disrespectful and rejecting of them (Bugental, 2001).
• Favour authoritarian parenting styles and severe punitive tactics (pulling hair, hitting in the face, hitting with objects).
• Often, they are highly stressed young parents.
• Often lack social support.

Question 22

What social factors are linked to abuse

Answer 22

families under stress, loss of a job and parents being unhappily married

Question 23

What is the role of fathers in child protection

Answer 23

• Fathers have been overlooked in the child protection system
• Negative stereotype of fathers
• Practical difficulties of working with fathers (mothers as gatekeepers of access to fathers, can be difficult clients)
• Fathers can serve a protective role

Question 24

Cultural factors linked to abuse

Answer 24

• More abuse in the USA because of permissive attitudes to violence and to sanctioning of physical punishment.
• Abuse is lower in Scandinavian countries where corporal punishment has been outlawed.

Question 25

Outline the Social Information Processing Model

Answer 25

• Pre-existing schemas
• Three cognitive processing stages (perceptions of social behaviour, interpretations and evaluations of social behaviour, information integration and response selection activities)
• Implementation and monitoring processes

Question 26

Outline Hildyard & Wolfe and neglectful mothers

Answer 26

• Hildyard & Wolfe (2008) draws on the SIP for explaining child abuse (Milner, 2003).
• 34 neglectful mothers and 33 non-neglectful comparison mothers.
• Neglectful mothers were less able to recognize infant emotions, more likely to see sadness and shame (not positive emotions), more inaccurate at labeling infants’ emotions, more limited emotional vocabulary, more internal and stable attributions (children’s risky behaviour).

Question 27

what does chronic neglect and chronic failure to provide predict

Answer 27

it predicts aggression and delinquency

Question 28

Outline McGuigan, Luchette and Atterholt research in the association between neglect and aggression

Answer 28

• A history of physical neglect (failure to provide food, shelter, clothing, nurturing and supervision, or adequate health care) was the strongest predictor of violent adolescent behaviour.
• mainly African-American youth from lower class backgrounds

Question 29

What factors contribute to lack of disclosure

Answer 29

• 1. nature of the abusive act (e.g., hitting) as well as its frequency, intensity, and duration
• 2. individual characteristics of the victim (e.g., age, self-blame)
• 3. the nature of the relationship between the victim and the perpetrator (e.g., spouse, stepparent)
• 4. other factors that may exacerbate its effects e.g., family chaos.

Question 30

outline Mulder et al’s research into the risk factors for child neglect

Answer 30

• a history of antisocial behaviour/criminal offending;
• a history of mental/psychiatric problems;
• mental/physical problems;
  and experiences of abuse in own childhood.

Question 31

What are the types of outcomes

Answer 31

• physical injuries
• psychological consequences
• acute and post traumatic stress disorders
• subtle psychological effects on victims
• process of adaptation (process that unfolds over time)
• practical consequences

Question 32

what are the effects of physical abuse

Answer 32

• aggression
• low self-esteem and self blame (deserved the treatment)
• lower empathy
• information processing biases – hostile intent
• attachment patterns are disrupted
• long term effects – later family violence (internalising/externalising problems)
• deficits in cognitive performance
• emotional regulation difficulties
• peer rejection

Question 33

what are the effects of neglect

Answer 33

Socially withdrawn, aggressive (although not to the same extent as children who are physically abused), IQ deficits, risk for delinquency, lack of secure attachments, poor impulse control. Mothers’ inattention leads to passivity and withdrawing behaviour, or random, undisciplined activity

Question 34

what are the effects of psychological maltreatment

Answer 34

Withdrawal, low self-esteem, delinquency, reduced emotional responsiveness, but also aggression, inability to become independent or to trust others, underachievement.

Question 35

why are the consequences of abuse variable

Answer 35

• Not all children who are abused suffer negative outcomes or the same outcomes.
• Negative effects are attenuated if the child establishes a warm, secure, supportive relationship with a nonabusive parent, grandparent, other family member, teacher, mentor etc.

Question 36

Outline the relationship between mental health and abuse

Answer 36

• All types of child maltreatment were significantly associated with increased odds of having poor mental health.
• Good mental health outcomes were associated with being physically active in the winter; utilizing positive coping strategies; having positive self-esteem; and internal locus of control.

Question 37

Outline Galloa et al’s research on mental health and abuse

Answer 37

• exposure to physical/sexual abuse increased the odds of depression/anxiety.
• Associations were larger for women than for men, however, these gender differences were not statistically significant.
• Physical and sexual abuse in childhood/ adolescence are risk factors for depression/anxiety in adulthood.

Question 38

what is transmission issues

Answer 38

• Violence breeds violence
• About one-third of individuals who were maltreated as children abuse or neglect their own children
• Intergenerational transmission of abuse is far from inevitable

Question 39

What are the issues with intergenerational transmission

Answer 39

Most studies overestimate the amount of intergenerational transmission because they usually only study those who are currently abusing their children and then see if they were abused as children.

Question 40

Outline the research of Armfield et al and intergenerational transmission

Answer 40

After adjusting for potential confounders, children of mothers with any CPS involvement in childhood had an increased risk of CPS contact compared with children whose mothers had no CPS involvement.

Question 41

What are the disciplinary links to intergenerational transmission

Answer 41

• Newcomb and Locke (2001) hypothesized that if there is a cycle or intergenerational transmission of maltreatment – the conduit is parenting practices.
• Based on findings that show that parents who experienced low levels of nurturance during their own childhood endorse the use of physical punishment.
• Mothers who perceived more rejection during their own childhood display more negative affect toward their own children.

Question 42

Outline the research of Newcomb and Locke and intergenerational transmission

Answer 42

• For mothers, family neglect by itself led to poor parenting as well as child maltreatment, and sexual abuse led to aggressive parenting.
• For fathers, sexual abuse led to a rejecting style of parenting, and child maltreatment led to poor parenting.
• Newcomb & Locke (2001) found that for the intergeneration transmission of child maltreatment – the latent factor of Child Maltreatment led to a latent construct of Poor Parenting indicating a general transmission process.
• Sexual abuse led to an aggressive style of parenting by mothers and a rejecting one by fathers.

Question 43

Outline the Vanderfaeilliea et al study on maltreatment severity

Answer 43

• Although most situations of Child Abuse and Neglect were detected, situations of emotional abuse were less often recognized.
• Situations involving non-Western victims were considered to be more severe and the perceived need for involvement of professional help, CCCAN and judicial authorities was larger.

Question 44

What is the main of early intervention

Answer 44

• 1. Enhancing educational readiness
• 2. Improving child health
• 3. Supporting parent

Question 45

what do supportive interventions assist

Answer 45

1) material needs (e.g., cribs, childcare, transportation)
2) psychological needs (e.g., parenting education and support)
3) educational needs (e.g., job skills)
4) improve general family well-being and reduce child mistreatment

Question 46

what is the effectiveness of the home visitor program

Answer 46

home-visited mothers had fewer and less serious child protection service reports, had fewer subsequent births, spent fewer months on welfare, had fewer arrests and were less likely to abuse substances in comparison to control families
- Fraser et al: Those with multiple children and no intervention tended to increase their child abuse potential at 18 months. However, no difference between intervention and comparison groups was evident at 12 and 18 months follow-up
- Duggan et al: found no evidence that these programs prevented child abuse

Question 47

What does Olds et al say about mothers and early visitation programs

Answer 47

Olds argued that it is more the belief that the mother has little control in her life that is the crucial issue.

Question 48

Outline Triple P

Answer 48

The triple P-positive parenting program: A comparison of enhanced, and self-directed behavioural family intervention for parents of children with early onset conduct problems.

Question 49

What were Sanders et al findings on Triple. P

Answer 49

• Variants of the BFI are suitable for reducing disruptive behaviour in young children with early onset behaviour problems
• The enhanced condition produced the most consistent short-term effects
• EBFI (Enhanced BFI) yielded benefits on all five child outcome measures as indicated by mothers’ and fathers’ reports, as well as direct observation. SDBFI (Self-Directed BFI) showed significant effects only on the parent-report measure.

Question 50

Outline the impact of BFIS

Answer 50

• The success of the BFI highlights the need to include a comprehensive parenting intervention in programs designed to reduce conduct problems in children.
• Families least likely to benefit from BFIs include those in which parenting problems are complicated by other forms of adversity

Question 51

Outline Nowak & Heinrichs evaluation of Triple P

Answer 51

Triple P causes positive changes in parenting skills, child problem behaviour and parental well-being in the small to moderate range, varying as a function of the intensity of the intervention.

Question 52

Outline SAFECARE

Answer 52

SafeCare is an evidence-based, behavioural skills training program for parents of children identified as being at-risk or who have been reported to child protection services.