NCJ Number
237903
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 35 Issue: 10 Dated: October 2011 Pages: 841-854
Date Published
October 2011
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This study examined the prevalence of reports of child emotional maltreatment in Canada as well as changes to reporting parameters established between 1998 and 2003.
Abstract
The study found that between 1998 and 2003, that the rate of emotional-abuse-only investigations and emotional-neglect-only investigations increased almost tripled, and the number of investigations for co-occurring reported maltreatment doubled. In addition, compared to all other types of maltreatment investigations, substantiated single-form emotional neglect investigations and co-occurring emotional neglect investigations had the highest rate of transfer to ongoing services, 72 percent and 77 percent, respectively. It was also found that children involved in investigations of substantiated co-occurring emotional neglect reported proportionately more emotional harm compared to all other categories of maltreatment, either in single or co-occurring form. This study examined the prevalence of reports of child emotional maltreatment in Canada between 1998 and 2003. Data for the study were obtained from a secondary analysis of the first and second wave of the Canadian Incidence Study. The study examined six different categories of emotional maltreatment: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, and other maltreatment all as individual forms of maltreatment. The study results show that emotional maltreatment is an increasing form of child maltreatment and that it is detected twice as often in co-occurring situations of abuse and neglect. The results also indicate the need to interventions that are diversified and complex, and that foster and strengthen positive parent-child relationships. Study limitations are discussed. Tables and references