Child Abuse and Neglect: Types, Signs, Prevention, and Risk Factors

Posted on Sep 4, 2024 in Medicine & Health

Child Abuse and Neglect

Definitions

Basic Human Needs:** Adequate nutrition, movement, functional family, secure relationships, social interaction, and sufficient environmental stimuli are crucial for healthy child development.

Child Abuse and Neglect (CAN) Syndrome:** Neglect or maltreatment leading to growth and developmental disorders.

Child Maltreatment:**

  • All forms of abuse and neglect of a child under 18 by a parent, caregiver, or someone in a custodial role.
  • Categories: Physical, sexual, emotional ill-treatment, and neglect.
  • Forms of maltreatment may occur separately or in combination.

Risk Factors

Child abuse and neglect result from a complex interplay of individual, family, and societal risk factors. While certain factors like parental substance abuse, maternal depression, and domestic violence are strong indicators, they should not be used in isolation to determine if a child is a victim.

Individual
  • Victimization Factors:** Children under 4, children with special needs.
  • Perpetration Factors:** Parental history of abuse, substance abuse, mental health issues, low socioeconomic status, low education levels, young parental age, multiple children, single parenthood, non-caregivers (e.g., maternal boyfriends).
Family
  • Social isolation
  • Family disorganization
  • Parenting stress
  • Poor parent-child relationship
Community
  • Violence
  • Concentrated neighborhood disadvantage (e.g., poverty)
  • High unemployment rates

Types of Child Abuse and Neglect

  • Physical Abuse
  • Sexual Abuse
  • Emotional and Psychological Abuse
  • Neglect

Physical Abuse

  • Causing physical harm or failing to protect a child from harm.
  • Examples: Bruising, burns, bone injuries, head injuries, internal organ injuries.
  • Estimated that 1-2% of children experience physical abuse, with approximately 2,000 fatal injuries annually.

Sexual Abuse

  • Exposing a child to sexual contact, activity, or behavior.
  • Any sexual contact, intercourse, or extortion by a parent, relative, friend, professional, volunteer, or stranger.
  • Includes contact and non-contact forms.
  • Commercial Child Sexual Abuse: Exploiting children for money or compensation, including child pornography, prostitution, and trafficking.

Emotional/Psychological Abuse

  • Behavior negatively impacting a child’s emotional and behavioral development.
  • Examples: Verbal attacks, repeated humiliation, rejection, witnessing violence, forced isolation, creating a threatening environment.

Neglect

  • Lack of care endangering a child’s well-being or development.
  • Physical Neglect: Failure to provide food, shelter, or supervision.
  • Medical Neglect: Failure to provide necessary medical or mental health treatment.
  • Educational Neglect: Failure to educate a child or address special educational needs.
  • Emotional Neglect: Inattention to emotional needs, failure to provide psychological care, permitting substance use.

Signs and Symptoms

Recognizing child abuse and neglect can be challenging. Signs and symptoms vary depending on the type of maltreatment:

  • Physical Abuse: Unexplained injuries.
  • Sexual Abuse: Fearful behavior (nightmares, depression), abdominal pain, bedwetting, genital pain or bleeding, STDs, running away, suicidal attempts, age-inappropriate sexual behavior.
  • Child Neglect: Sudden changes in self-confidence, unexplained aches, abnormal fears, school failure, failure to thrive, voracious appetite.

Prevention

The United Nations and WHO’s World Report on Violence Against Children (WR) provides guidance on preventing child maltreatment. The WR advises states to:

  1. Develop national strategies for preventing violence against children.
  2. Prohibit all forms of violence against children through:
    • Legislative intervention
    • Reliable data collection

Levels of Prevention

Primary Prevention
  • Non-Specific: Aims to prevent violence by addressing root causes and creating environments where violence is less likely. Focuses on stopping maltreatment before it occurs.
  • Specific: Targets attitudes and behaviors through family support and strengthening programs. These programs enhance families’ ability to access resources and foster positive interactions.
Secondary Prevention
:
o Its purpose is to detect threats of violence in time and prevent them (through regular medical checks, etc…) o Offered to populations that have one or more risk factors associated with child maltreatment such as:

 Poverty

  •   Parental substance abuse

  •   Young parental age

  •   Parental mental health concerns

  •   Parental or child disabilities

– Tertiary prevention:
o Re-socializing and re-integrating measures targeted:

  •   On children

  •   On localities affected by the given form of violence

o The purpose of tertiary prevention is to prevent deepening of the trauma