Child Development and Public Health

For my public health topic, I selected Child Maltreatment, but my emphasis is on Neglect.  I selected this topic because many children are neglected on a daily basis.  In my opinion, neglect is a silent killer of children, as physical neglect is the most prevalent cause of death in children. I often feel that anyone can do "anything" to a child and receive very little punishment, if any.  There's much to be done to improve policy and law to protect all children.  Based on everything I know and have experienced, it usually left up to educational staff, concerned family or neighbors, medical staff or concerned friends to report neglectful situations to the proper authorities. 

Child Neglect: The Story of Jordan Heikamp (Video)

Neglect is the failure to meet a child’s basic needs. These needs include housing, food, clothing, education, and access to medical care (www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention).

 

Many researchers include neglect or harm caused by a lack of care on the part of parents or other caregivers as part of the definition of abuse (as cited on http://www.who.int/en/). Conditions such as hunger and poverty are sometimes included within the definition of neglect. Because definitions vary and laws on reporting abuse do not always require the mandatory reporting of neglect, it is difficult to estimate the global dimensions of the problem or meaningfully to compare rates between countries. Little research, for instance, has been done on how children and parents or other caregivers may differ in defining neglect. In Kenya, abandonment and neglect were the most commonly cited aspects of child abuse when adults in the community were questioned on the subject (as cited on http://www.who.int/en/). In this study, 21.9% of children reported that they had been neglected by their parents. In Canada, a national study of cases reported to child welfare services found that, among the substantiated cases of neglect, 19% involved physical neglect, 12% abandonment, 11% educational neglect, and 48% physical harm resulting from a parent’s failure to provide adequate supervision  (as cited on http://www.who.int/en/).      

There are Four Types of Neglect:

Physical neglect (the most prevalent cause of child death)

Physical neglect accounts for the majority of cases of maltreatment. Physical neglect generally involves the parent or caregiver not providing the child with basic necessities (e.g., adequate food, clothing and shelter). Failure or refusal to provide these necessities endangers the child’s physical health, well-being, psychological growth and development. Physical neglect also includes child abandonment, inadequate supervision, rejection of a child leading to expulsion from the home and failure to adequately provide for the child’s safety and physical and emotional needs. Physical neglect can severely impact a child’s development by causing failure to thrive; malnutrition; serious illness; physical harm in the form of cuts, bruises, burns or other injuries due to the lack of supervision; and a lifetime of low self-esteem (www.americanhumane.org)

Educational neglect

Educational neglect involves the failure of a parent or caregiver to enroll a child of mandatory school age in school or provide appropriate home schooling or needed special educational training, thus allowing the child or youth to engage in chronic truancy (www.americanhumane.org)

Emotional/Psychological neglect

Emotional/Psychological neglect includes actions such as engaging in chronic or extreme spousal abuse in the child’s presence, allowing a child to use drugs or alcohol, refusing or failing to provide needed psychological care, constantly belittling the child and withholding affection (www.americanhumane.org).

Medical neglect

Medical neglect is the failure to provide appropriate health care for a child (although financially able to do so), thus placing the child at risk of being seriously disabled or disfigured or dying (www.americanhumane.org) 

Although medical neglect is highly correlated with poverty, there is a distinction between a caregiver’s inability to provide the needed care based on cultural norms or the lack of financial resources and a caregiver’s knowing reluctance or refusal to provide care (www.americanhumane.org).

These situations do not always mean a child is neglected. Sometimes cultural values,  

the standards of care in the community, and poverty may be contributing factors,

indicating the family is in need of information or assistance. When a family

fails to use information and resources, and the child’s health or safety is at risk,

then child welfare intervention may be required. In addition, many States provide

an exception to the defi nition of neglect for parents who choose not to seek medical care 

for their children due to religious beliefs that may prohibit medical intervention (www.childwelfare.gov).

Athough I focused my research on "neglect", the physical abuse rates in other countries were quite disturbing and might be higher than the United States  Please see below.

Available research suggests that the rates for 

many other countries are no lower, and may be 

indeed higher than the estimates of physical abuse

in the United States. The following findings, among

others around the world, have emerged recently:

In a cross-sectional survey of children in

Egypt, 37% reported being beaten or tied up

by their parents and 26% reported physical

injuries such as fractures, loss of consciousness

or permanent disability as a result of being

beaten or tied up (as cited on http://www.who.int/en).

In a recent study in the Republic of Korea,

parents were questioned about their behaviour

towards their children. Two-thirds of

the parents reported whipping their children

and 45% confirmed that they had hit, kicked

or beaten them (as cited on http://www.who.int/en).

.A survey of households in Romania found that

4.6% of children reported suffering severe and

frequent physical abuse, including being hit

with an object, being burned or being

deprived of food. Nearly half of Romanian

parents admitted to beating their children

‘‘regularly’’ and 16% to beating their children

with objects (as cited on http://www.who.int/en).

 In Ethiopia, 21% of urban schoolchildren and

64% of rural schoolchildren reported bruises

or swellings on their bodies resulting from

parental punishment (as cited on http://www.who.int/en).

PLEASE READ: What are the Signs of Child Neglect and its Effect on Children

American Humane Association.  (2011).  Child neglect.  Retrieved from www.americanhumane.org

Center for Disease Control and Prevention.  (2010).  Understanding child maltreatment fact sheet.  Retrieved from www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention

Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2008, April).  What is child abuse and neglect?  Retrieved from www.childwelfare.gov

World Health Organization. (2002).  Child abuse and neglect by parents and other caregivers.  Retrieved from http://www.who.int/en/