Abstract Child abuse is a social problem that receives much attention from policy makers, practitioners, and researchers. This alarming phenomenon generates many consequences for children, their ...families, and society as a whole; one tragic consequence of child abuse is filicide. Because of the unfortunate circumstances surrounding such events, children are hushed by their perpetrators, whether abusers or killers, and we are thus denied the opportunity to hear their voices and to promote understanding of the phenomenon. The aim of the current study is to explore in depth the patterns and themes that can be found in the narratives of children who survived a murder attempt by one of their parents. Content analysis was performed on seven investigative interviews with children using thematic analysis. Five key categories were determined based on the children's narratives: (a) many bad things have happened to me, (b) this was not the first time I was abused by my parent, (c) I am concerned about my parent, (d) I am alive thanks to my siblings, and (e) it is hard to remember what exactly happened. This study contributes to the understanding of child physical abuse and filicide. The discussion integrated conclusions for policy makers and practitioners who seek methods of addressing child abuse as well as determining whether and how filicide can be prevented.
The association between child maltreatment and polyvictimization has received growing attention since being identified by Finkelhor and colleagues in 2005.
The current study was designed to explore ...the experiences and perceptions of children who reported polyvictimization during forensic interviews.
This mixed-methods study sample comprised 117 children aged 5–14, referred for the first time to forensic interviews following suspected physical abuse by a parent. More than one-third of the children reported polyvictimization. A thematic analysis was carried out to spotlight these children's experiences.
The analysis identified three main themes: the way children comprehend the polyvictimization, the consequences of the polyvictimization regarding the children's negative self-attribution, and the way the polyvictimization was constructed through the dynamic with the forensic interviewers.
The findings pointed to the importance of the forensic interview platform in assessing children's maltreatment burden. The current study also provided a glance into the possible involvement of the mechanics of self-blame among maltreated children. These findings have the potential to enhance our understanding of the excessive psychological toll taken on polyvictimized children.
Four hundred twenty-six 4- to 13-year-old suspected victims of intrafamilial abuse were interviewed using either the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) Investigative ...Interview Standard Protocol (SP) or a revised version of this Protocol (RP) designed to both enhance rapport between children and interviewers and provide additional nonsuggestive support to suspected victims who might be reluctant to make allegations. All allegations were corroborated by independent evidence documenting that the alleged abuse had indeed taken place. Analyses revealed that children were significantly more likely to make allegations of abuse when the RP rather than the SP was employed. These results suggest that supportive forensic interviewing may facilitate valid reports of abuse by young victims who might otherwise be unwilling to make allegations.
This study examined age differences in 299 preschoolers' responses to investigative interviewers' questions exploring the suspected occurrence of child abuse. Analyses focused on the children's ...tendencies to respond (a) at all, (b) appropriately to the issue raised by the investigator, and (c) informatively, providing previously undisclosed information. Linear developmental trends characterized all types of responding. When the types of prompts were considered, 3-to 4-year-olds responded slightly more informatively to specific (directive) recall prompts than to open-ended prompts whereas children aged 5 and older were more responsive to open-ended recall prompts. The findings suggest that even 3-year-olds can provide information about experienced events when recall processes are activated, although the ability to provide narrative responses to openended recall prompts only becomes reliable later in development.
Parents' perceptions of their parenting competence predict successful implementation of parenting tasks and contribute to their interest and involvement in parenting and to their children's ...development. Thus, identifying factors that contribute to parents' perceptions of parenting competence can help inform efforts to promote children's safety and well‐being. The present study employs social disorganization theory to examine the relationship between collective efficacy and parents' sense of competence, measured along two dimensions: parental efficacy and parental satisfaction. It examines the direct association between the two constructs and whether the association is mediated by parent perceptions of their quality of life (QOL) and sense of hope. Data were collected from 198 parents residing in a neighborhood in southern Tel Aviv, Israel. The analyses indicated that high collective efficacy was directly associated with high parental efficacy, but not with high parental satisfaction. Using structural equation modeling, a mediation model was found whereby higher collective efficacy was associated with (a) higher QOL, which in turn was related to a greater sense of hope, which was linked with higher parental efficacy; and (b) higher QOL, which was directly associated with higher parental satisfaction. The findings provide further support to the idea that neighborhood characteristics play an important role in parents' ability to care for their children.
Resumen
Las percepciones de los padres de su competencia en la crianza predicen la implementación satisfactoria de las tareas de crianza y contribuyen a su interés y participación en la crianza y al desarrollo de sus hijos. Por ende, los factores identificadores que contribuyen a las percepciones de los padres de su competencia en la crianza pueden ayudar a orientar las iniciativas para promover la seguridad y el bienestar de los niños. El presente estudio emplea la teoría de la desorganización social a fin de analizar la relación entre la eficacia colectiva y la percepción de competencia de los padres evaluadas en dos dimensiones: la eficacia parental y la satisfacción parental. Además, examina la asociación directa entre los dos constructos y si la asociación está mediada por las percepciones de los padres de su calidad de vida y su sensación de esperanza. Se recopilaron datos de 198 padres que viven en un barrio del sur de Tel Aviv, Israel. Los análisis indicaron que una eficacia colectiva alta estuvo directamente asociada con una eficacia parental alta, pero no con una satisfacción parental alta. Utilizando modelos de ecuaciones estructurales, se descubrió un modelo de mediación por el cual una eficacia colectiva más alta estuvo asociada con (a) una calidad de vida más alta, la cual a su vez estuvo relacionada con una mayor sensación de esperanza, que estuvo ligada con una eficacia parental más alta; y (b) una calidad de vida más alta, que estuvo directamente asociada con una satisfacción parental más alta. Los resultados ofrecen mayor respaldo de la idea de que las características de un barrio desempeñan un papel importante en la capacidad de los padres para preocuparse por sus hijos.
摘要
家长对于其亲职能力的感知预测亲职任务的成功实施,有助于其对于亲职的兴趣和参与以及孩子发展。因此,确认有助于家长亲职能力感知的因素能使促进儿童安全和健康的努力更有效。该研究使用社会混乱理论来考察共同功效和家长能力感知之间的关系,我们从两个维度进行测量: 家长功效和家长满意度,其考察了两个建构之间的直接关联以及该关联是否由家长对于生活质量 (QOL)的感知和希望的感受。我们从居住在以色利南特拉维夫一个小区的198名居民除收集数据。分析显示高共同功效和高亲职功效直接相关联,而和高亲职满意度不相关。使用结构等式模型,我们发现较高共同功效和较高QOL通过一个调节模型相关联,而较高QOL又和较强的对希望的感受相关,而较强的对希望的感受和较高的亲职满意度相关。这些发现为社区特点在家长照顾孩子能力方面扮演重要角色这一想法提供进一步的支持。
The protection of children from maltreatment has become extremely challenging during the COVID-19 pandemic. The public's gaze is focused on the urgent health crisis, while many children are at risk ...due to social isolation and reduced social services.
Examine child protection in Israel during COVID-19, as portrayed in mainstream news media and government policy documents.
The study analyzed all policy documents and mainstream media reports published in Israel from March to May 2020, during the initial mandatory nationwide quarantine.
(1) Search of relevant articles in mainstream news websites; (2) Search of documents in official websites of relevant government ministries and agencies.
28 government policy documents and 22 media articles were found relevant. When examined chronologically, what stood out was the initial decision to shut down social services, including some of the residential care units for youth at risk, and declare social workers “non-essential”. These decisions were revoked a few weeks into the quarantine, following persistent media pressure by child advocates, resulting in minor changes in policy.
Children were initially invisible to Israeli policymakers facing the pandemic, highlighting the centrality of advocates promoting children's rights and of mainstream news media in disseminating the discourse of protecting children from maltreatment, especially in times of crisis. Moreover, the study points to the heightened threat to at-risk children due to inadequate policies, and to the urgent need to develop child protection policies in order to avoid further risk in future global crises.
Educational institutions and educators are significant in children's lives, and they have a crucial role in implementing policies, practices, and sexual education to enhance children's safety. Such ...policies and practices should be based on the voices of CSA survivors. This study explored child sexual abuse (CSA) survivors' viewpoints on their past experiences with educators and the educational system. A qualitative thematic approach was used to analyze 61 written testimonies collected in 2020-2021 by the Israeli Independent Public Inquiry on CSA. Two interrelated themes arose: (1) CSA survivors' retrospective perspectives of educators and the educational system's responses to signs of their CSA, described as ranging from abusive to life-saving. Specifically, they shared three types of responses: (a) harmful and hurtful; (b) dismissive and ignoring; and (c) accepting and attending. (2) The second theme described the survivors' messages to educators to promote constructive change. The survivors conveyed expectations that educators should play a central role in CSA prevention, detection, and intervention and, specifically, the need for educators to receive professional training, provide beneficial sexual education, and identify and respond to CSA. The findings promoted moving beyond individual-level interventions to focus on improving educational institutional and organizational cultures related to CSA in both national and international contexts.
The special issue “Protecting children from maltreatment during COVID-19: First volume,” focused on analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on various aspects of child maltreatment and child ...protective services (Katz & Fallon, 2020). The issue explored three main areas of research, the first examined the psychological effects of COVID-19 in two populations: individuals with a history of abuse and caregivers. This second volume is a continuation of the first and comprises studies intended to address two core questions: (1) how does COVID-19 impact the rates of child maltreatment (CM); and (2) how does COVID-19 impact the delivery of child protective service responses. These two questions are discussed and studied in a variety of international settings.
Abstract Objective The study focused on children's nonverbal behavior in investigative interviews exploring suspicions of child abuse. The key aims were to determine whether non-verbal behavior in ...the pre-substantive phases of the interview predicted whether or not children would disclose the alleged abuse later in the interview and to identify differences in the nonverbal behaviors of disclosing and non-disclosing children. Method We studied DVD-recorded interviews of 40 alleged victims of child abuse. In all cases, there was external evidence strongly suggesting that abuse had occurred. However, half of the children disclosed abuse when interviewed using the NICHD Investigative Interview Protocol, whereas the other half did not. Two raters, unaware whether or not the children disclosed, independently coded the videotapes for nonverbal indices of positive and negative emotions, stress, and physical disengagement in each 15-second unit of the introductory, rapport building, and substantive interview phases. Results Indicators of stress and physical disengagement increased as the interviews progressed while indices of positive emotions decreased. Non-disclosers showed proportionately more physical disengagement than disclosers in both the introductory and substantive phases. Conclusions Awareness of non-verbal behavior may help investigators identify reluctant children early in forensic interviews. Practice implications There is substantial evidence that, when questioned by investigators, many children do not disclose that they have been abused. The early detection of reluctance to disclose may allow interviewers to alter their behavior, helping the children overcome their reluctance by providing non-suggestive support before the possibility of abuse is discussed. Of course, nonverbal behavior alone should not be used to assess children in investigative interviews. However, nonverbal cues may nonetheless provide additional information to interviewers and assist them in identifying reluctant children.
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