Child Maltreatment Flashcards

Question

Pros and cons of Official records are..

Answer 1

> "Objective" - still requires someone to report what is happening to a child, someone else records things to decide whether it is worth investigating, and investigators decide whether or not maltreatment actually is occurring > When maltreatment is reported the date gets recorded - important when we want to infer causation, when we need to know whether maltreatment occurs prior to the outcome > False negatives may occur though - if we don't have enough information, or if a case doesn't meet the threshold for investigation we may miss some genuine cases of maltreatment Although, > Arguably only captures the most serious cases that get reported > Some social classes or minority groups are also more likely to be reported - bias

Answer 2

> Qualitative research is useful because it can help us operationalise concepts like neglect which can be hard to define ..But it can't be generalised past one individual > There are also very few randomised controlled trials in this area - because it is very unethical to randomly assign some children to be maltreated… > There are some Random Control Trials in terms of treatment, but not so much in terms of how exposure relates to outcomes

Answer 3

Physical and mental health outcomes >Neurological problems > Obesity > Cardiovascular disease Mental health problems (e.g., depression, PTSD) > Socio-economic outcomes > Homelessness > Unemployment > Harmful behaviour e.g., drug and alcohol dependence > Re-victimisation > Perpetrating or becoming victim of violence or crime ALTHOUGH Child maltreatment is not causal - not all of these risks will eventuate, and children with similar experiences can experience different outcomes

Answer 4

Defining poverty is difficult Individual, family or neighbourhood level? Continuous (e.g., income) or dichotomous (e.g., living above or below poverty line)? Correlated with a range of other factors (e.g. age, education, family structure) and it is not static - people move in and out of poverty… So does poverty actually cause child maltreatment, or do these other factors explain or mediate the situation? Poor children do tend to be maltreated at a 3:1 ratio compared to non-poor children If poverty alone were a sufficient explanation for child maltreatment, we would expect cases of maltreatment among reported and non-reported poor children to look pretty similar; but if child protection surveillance did have an influence we would expect better outcomes for those who were poor and not reported Longitudinal study over 12 years found that those who were reported were 3x more likely to display later offending behaviour, 2x more likely to be admitted to hospital, 2x more likely to be a teen parent, and 4x more likely to receive mental health services > Suggests that there is minimal poverty bias in child protection reporting because those who were poor and reported did have poorer outcomes But then again - we don't know if there was any child protection intervention, if there was any removal in terms of out of home care, which may lead to poorer outcomes…

Answer 5

> Parent as perpetrator > Abuser is somehow pathological and suffering from mental illness > But this approach fails to recognise social conditions and stressors that undermine family functioning > Risk in assuming we can identify an abusive parent, and also labelling could have negative consequences > Similar to victim-blaming with a strong focus on the parents > Treatment would focus on therapy, counselling, parenting skills… very expensive… and impractical

Answer 6

> Rather than looking at a social defect within the parent we look at the social stressors, pressure on families and parental isolation > Job loss, unemployment, moving around a lot > Treatment would focus on alleviating these stressors and pressure

Answer 7

> Focus on interaction between environmental and psychological factors e.g. a parent whose maturity is characterised by lower developmental forms, such as teen parents with lower social support and confidence in child rearing > Their method of parenting may be different to other older parents > Different to psychiatric approach, their child maltreatment may be due to "appropriate" responses for their developmental level, rather than an individual pathology

Answer 8

> Focus on multiple interacting and nested systems - merging several factors

Answer 9

Biological factors could include genetics, brain chemistry, brain structure, neuropsychological factors, temperament Individual factors: personality, cognitions, emotions, observed behaviours or mental states Family: parents, parent-child interactions Social: peers, extra-familial individuals, role models, risk factors Cultural: community, social values, practices of violence These are all interacting and change over time i.e. parent-child relationships may be more important when younger, but may change to peer relationships as we get older

Answer 10

Intergenerational transmission of child maltreatment (transference of personal maltreatment onto children and maltreatment practices) Social learning theory (importance of modelling and imitation (learning what is 'normal' behaviour in childhood)) Biases in cognitive processing (e.g. hostile attribution bias, where people incorrectly attribute hostility to the actions of others and react aggressively as a response) Attachment theory (Child maltreatment consistently linked to disorganised attachment styles. Sets the foundation for poor adaptation later in life. For parents who do have unresolved disorganised attachment styles, their interactions with their child may trigger personal trauma and lead to abusive parenting, thus leading to disorganised attachment in children, etc…) Well-established evidence for these theories ^ but the cycle is continuously broken Many parents with disorganised attachment don't maltreat their children

Answer 11

Personality and psychological resources Impulse control, self-esteem, empathy, emotional stability, depression, anxiety, hostility Parents who maltreat their children are more reactive to their children and experience greater irritation and less sympathy One or two of these factors alone are insufficient for child maltreatment, but a cumulative build up of these factors is more likely Cognitive processing leading to cognitive distortions and assumptions e.g. hostile attribution bias, misattribution bias, internal or stable negative traits, or discriminating failures like allowing perceptions of others to influence perception of someone else (e.g. he's just like his father)

Answer 12

Age Younger age is often a higher risk factor May be more dependent on caregiver Smaller and more vulnerable Lower impulse control, lower emotional regulation But different types of maltreatment may not be evenly distributed across different periods Physical abuse more likely in younger children; neglect in adolescents Physical health Low birth weight Disabilities Both linked to behavioural problems, like… Behaviour Disruptive behaviour, hyperactive behaviour, difficult temperament May be more likely to elicit negative responses from parents But there is a possibility again for misattribution bias and for parents of maltreated children to be perceived as more problematic than they really are But longitudinal evidence suggests that maltreatment eliciting behaviour in children is more of a consequence than a cause of child maltreatment

Answer 13

Family context > Child maltreatment more common in larger families, single parent families and step families > Also in families that move around a lot Community and social support >Could be a function of unemployment, job dissatisfaction, economic hardship >Isolation, poor neighbourhood networks Socio-cultural factors >Societal attitudes towards violence and discipline Corporal punishment > Legal in Australia as long as it remains at a decent level (hard to define), and not allowed in schools or care sector

Answer 14

> Acts of commission and physical aggression | > Focus in on identifiable, non-accidental inflictions of physical injury

Answer 15

> Use of a child for sexual gratification or exploitation | > Includes attempted or actual conflict, inducement and coercion

Answer 16

> Failure to provide an appropriate or supportive environment > Involves extreme thwarting of a child's basic emotional needs for psychological safety and security, acceptance and self-esteem, and age-appropriate autonomy

Answer 17

> Failure to provide for the development of a child > Physical, supervisory, medical and educational > Is dependant on the resources of the parent > Most difficult to define and identify because it is very broad, and neglect needs to have a recurrent pattern, as opposed to a single event