Despite the substantial body of literature on racial disparities in child welfare involvement in the Unites States, there is relatively little research on such differences for Canadian children and ...families. This study begins to address this gap by examining decision-making among workers investigating Black and White families investigated for child protection concerns in Ontario, Canada. Using provincially representative data, the study assessed whether Black children were more likely than White children to be investigated by child welfare, if there was disparate decision-making by race throughout the investigation, and how the characteristics of Black and White children contribute to the decision to transfer to ongoing services. The results indicate that Black children were more likely to be investigated than White children, but there was little evidence to suggest that workers in Ontario child welfare agencies made the decision to substantiate, transfer to ongoing services, or place the child in out-of-home care based on race alone. Black and White children differed significantly with respect to child characteristics, characteristics of the investigation, caregiver risk factors, and socioeconomic circumstances. When adjusting for these characteristics, Black families had 33% greater odds (OR=1.33; 95% CI: 1.26, 1.40; p=<0.001) of being transferred to ongoing services compared to White families. Among Black families, the assessed quality of the parent-child relationship and severe economic hardship were the most significant and substantial contributors to the decision to provide child welfare services. Implications for practice, policy, and research are discussed.
Parenting behaviors play a critical role in the child's behavioral development, particularly for children with neurological deficits. This study examined the relationship of parental warm ...responsiveness and negativity to changes in behavior following traumatic brain injury (TBI) in young children relative to an age-matched cohort of children with orthopedic injuries (OI). It was hypothesized that responsive parenting would buffer the adverse effects of TBI on child behavior, whereas parental negativity would exacerbate these effects. Children, ages 3-7 years, hospitalized for TBI (
n
= 80) or OI (
n
= 113), were seen acutely and again 6 months later. Parent-child dyads were videotaped during free play. Parents completed behavior ratings (Child Behavior Checklist;
T. M. Achenbach & L. A. Rescorla, 2001
) at both visits, with baseline ratings reflecting preinjury behavior. Hypotheses were tested using multiple regression, with preinjury behavior ratings, race, income, child IQ, family functioning, and acute parental distress serving as covariates. Parental responsiveness and negativity had stronger associations with emerging externalizing behaviors and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder symptoms among children with severe TBI. Findings suggest that parenting quality may facilitate or impede behavioral recovery following early TBI. Interventions that increase positive parenting may partially ameliorate emerging behavior problems.
Path analysis within a structural equation modeling framework was employed to examine the relationships between two types of parent stress and children’s externalizing and internalizing behaviors ...over a 4-year period, in a sample of 184 mothers of young children with autism spectrum disorder. Parent stress was measured with the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form and child behavior was measured with Child Behavior Checklist/1.5–5. Across all time points, parent general distress predicted both types of child behaviors, but not vice versa. In addition, there was modest evidence of a bidirectional relationship between parenting distress and both types of child behaviors from 12 months post-diagnosis to age 6. Results are compared to previous work in this area, with implications for early intervention.
In 2007, Peter Connelly, a 17-month-old boy living in north London, died as a result of sustained neglect and abuse. Fifteen months later, his mother, her boyfriend, and her boyfriend's brother were ...sent to prison for his death, but the media-who called Connelly "Baby P"-turned their attention toward the health and social workers who had been attending to him and his injuries during the eight months prior to his death. The Story of Baby P goes in depth into what really happened with Connelly's care and examines the damaging consequences that the media's treatment of his case has had on those who work to protect children.
Even today the health and social workers who treated Connelly are aggressively pursued by the press. Ray Jones uses this fact to tell a larger story of blame and the media's role in it, moving from a direct account of the details surrounding Connelly's death to a look at how the media shifted attention to child services and its failings. He then examines the impact the case and its exposure had on the child protection system in England. The most comprehensive account of Connelly's unjust death and its ramifications, The Story of Baby P is essential reading for anyone concerned with social services and the real effects of public scandals on the people and organizations caught up in them.
Disputing Discipline explores how global and local children’s rights activists’ efforts within the school systems of Zanzibar to eradicate corporal punishment are changing the archipelago’s moral and ...political landscape. Through an equal consideration of child and adult perspectives, Fay explores what child protection means for Zanzibari children who have to negotiate their lives at the intersections of universalized and local child protection aspirations while growing up to be pious and responsible adults. Through a visual and participatory ethnographic approach that foregrounds young people’s voices through their poetry, photographs, and drawings, paired with in-depth Swahili language analysis, Fay shows how children’s views and experiences can transform our understanding of child protection. This book demonstrates that to improve interventions, policy makers and practitioners need to understand child protection beyond a policy sense of the term and respond to the reality of children’s lives to avoid unintentionally compromising, rather than improving, young people’s well-being.
To estimate the health and economic burdens of child maltreatment in China.
We did a systematic review for studies on child maltreatment in China using PubMed, Embase, PsycInfo, CINAHL-EBSCO, ERIC ...and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases. We did meta-analyses of studies that met inclusion criteria to estimate the prevalence of child neglect and child physical, emotional and sexual abuse. We used data from the 2010 global burden of disease estimates to calculate disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost as a result of child maltreatment.
From 68 studies we estimated that 26.6% of children under 18 years of age have suffered physical abuse, 19.6% emotional abuse, 8.7% sexual abuse and 26.0% neglect. We estimate that emotional abuse in childhood accounts for 26.3% of the DALYs lost because of mental disorders and 18.0% of those lost because of self-harm. Physical abuse in childhood accounts for 12.2% of DALYs lost because of depression, 17.0% of those lost to anxiety, 20.7% of those lost to problem drinking, 18.8% of those lost to illicit drug use and 18.3% of those lost to self-harm. The consequences of physical abuse of children costs China an estimated 0.84% of its gross domestic product - i.e. 50 billion United States dollars - in 2010. The corresponding losses attributable to emotional and sexual abuse in childhood were 0.47% and 0.39% of the gross domestic product, respectively.
In China, child maltreatment is common and associated with large economic losses because many maltreated children suffer substantial psychological distress and might adopt behaviours that increase their risk of chronic disease.
Parents and children often report different perspectives about parents’ behaviors. Such lack of congruence is important because it may reflect problems in their relationship and may be associated ...with children’s maladjustment. We conducted a systematic, quantitative review of parent–child agreement and discrepancy about parenting behaviors, and potential moderators (e.g., children’s age, race, clinical status, family intactness) of the extent of mother–child and father–child congruence. The meta-analyses included 85 studies with 476 effect sizes of the degree of agreement and discrepancy in parent–child reports of three parenting behaviors: Acceptance, Psychological Control, and Behavioral Control assessed with one of the most widely-used measures of parenting—the Children’s Report of Parental Behavior Inventory. Mother–child and father–child dyads exhibited significant but modest levels of agreement (
r
) across parenting constructs. The amount and direction of discrepancy (Hedges’
g
) varied by the parenting construct and parents’ sex. Overall, parents’ reports were more favorable than their children’s report about the parents’ behaviors. Significant associations were found between the magnitude of agreement/discrepancy and children’s age, race, clinical status, and family intactness. Moderators differed by parenting construct, parents’ sex, and type of effect size. Implications of these findings for researchers and clinicians are discussed and highlight the need for further research about the meaning of parent–child incongruence, its relation to children’s psychopathology, and interventions for reducing it.
Bamba and Haight provide an in-depth understanding of the everyday experiences and perspectives of maltreated children and their substitute caregivers and teachers in Japan. Their innovative research ...program combines strategies from developmental psychology, ethnography and action research. Although child advocates from around the world share certain goals and challenges, there is substantial cultural variation in how child maltreatment is understood, its origins, impact on children and families, as well as societal responses deemed appropriate. The authors step outside of the Western cultural context to illustrate creative ecologically and developmentally based strategies for supporting the psychosocial well-being of maltreated children in state care, provide an alternative but complementary model to the prevalent large-scale survey strategies for conducting international research in child welfare, and provide a resource for educators to enhance the international content of human development, education, social work and child welfare courses.
Abstract Objective Child protection, as primarily applied toward narrow corrective intervention, has been judged to be inadequate in dealing with the wide variety of forms and levels of physical, ...psychological and sexual violence to which children are subjected throughout the world. Concern about this state of affairs has grown as a part of a global increase in commitments and expectations for nations and their societies to be accountable to and for children, particularly in association with the requirements of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. A reconstruction of child protection is needed. Method Recently, a child rights approach to child protection has been gathering support to drive a transformation of child protection toward primary prevention capable of securing and promoting the rights, safety, well-being, health and development of children. This vision has been given concrete form by the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child through its recently adopted guide (General Comment 13) to fulfilling national obligations to the right of the child to freedom from all forms of violence. Results/Conclusions Here, it is argued that the desired transformation of child protection can be greatly facilitated by appreciation and application of knowledge about the psychological domain, in particular, psychological maltreatment, by promotion of an enlightened public health approach, and by giving high priority to determining the origins of violence and to establishing widespread commitment to full development of the uniqueness of each person.
This study evaluated a 6-session group parenting program,
Tuning into Kids
(TIK), as treatment for young children (aged 4.0–5.11 years) with behavior problems. TIK targets parent emotion ...socialization (parent emotion awareness, regulation and emotion coaching skills). Fifty-four parents, recruited via a child behavior clinic, were randomized into intervention (TIK) or waitlist (clinical treatment as usual). Parents reported emotion awareness/regulation, emotion coaching, empathy and child behavior (pre-intervention, post-intervention, 6-month follow-up); teachers reported child behavior and observers rated parent–child emotion coaching and child emotion knowledge (pre-intervention, follow-up). Data were analyzed using growth curve modeling and ANCOVA. Parents in both conditions reported less emotional dismissiveness and reduced child behavior problems; in the intervention group, parents also reported greater empathy and had improved observed emotion coaching skills; their children had greater emotion knowledge and reduced teacher-reported behavior problems. TIK appears to be a promising addition to treatment for child behavior problems.
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