Reflection Paper on film (2-3 pages MAX)

Risk Factors for Child

Maltreatment

Types of Maltreatment

 Physical abuse – nonaccidental injury inflicted by a caregiver

 Sexual abuse – the use of a child for the sexual gratification of an adult

 Psychological maltreatment

◦ Includes emotional abuse and emotional neglect

 Neglect – act of omission

◦ Physical neglect

◦ Medical neglect

◦ Educational neglect

Types of Factors

 Potentiating: increase risk for maltreatment

 Compensatory: buffers, decreases risk

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 Transient – temporary

◦ Temporary unemployment, loss of a loved one

 Enduring – ongoing; chronic

◦ Chronic unemployment; untreated mental health issues

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Applied to each level of analysis

http://faculty.weber.edu/tlday/1500/systems.jpg

Levels of Analysis of Each Instance of

Maltreatment  Macrosystemic: broad cultural values and beliefs

in the larger society

 Exosystemic: social structures that form the immediate context in which families and individuals function (e.g., neighborhood, school)

 Microsystemic: environmental setting that contains the developing person (e.g., family, classroom)

 Ontogenetic: factors within the child

Macrosystemic Issues

 Acceptability of violence ◦ Levels of violent crime, presence of weapons ◦ Levels of violence in media ◦ Acceptance of corporal punishment

 Sexualization of children

 Individualism ◦ Focus on nuclear family both fully responsible for and

controlling of children

◦ Geographical isolation of families with children

 Values/definitions of work

Exosystemic Issue:

Poverty

 Poverty as a stressor: inadequate resources, feelings of disempowerment (becomes a microsystemic issue)

 Poverty places individuals in less safe environments, requiring more parental effort to protect

 Poverty places individuals in resource scarce environments

 Increasingly poor urban areas are places to which people are not committed - less sense of community

Microsystemic Issues

 History of abuse in parents

 Mental illness in parents

 Substance abuse in parents

 Domestic violence

 Problematic parenting practices

 Lack of social support

Mental Health Issues in Parents

 Mental illness impacts childrearing

 Mental health issues increase risk of substance abuse, especially in women

 Personality disorders are thought to be

most common mental health problem

◦ Core component of an individual’s way of perceiving the world

◦ Often go unrecognized as mental illness among child welfare workers

History of Child Abuse in Parents

 Child abuse in parents may result in mental health issues (depression, PTSD)

 Attachment impairment

 Lack of modeling of appropriate parenting behaviors

Substance Abuse

 Direct physical effects on fetus

◦ Critical issue: should prenatal maternal substance abuse be considered maltreatment

and subject to intervention prenatally

 Effects in terms of prenatal care

 Effects in terms of caregiving capacity

Prenatal Alcohol Use

 Effects of alcohol best documented: Fetal

Alcohol Syndrome/Fetal Alcohol Effects

◦ Abnormalities in face

◦ Intellectual impairment

◦ Developmental delays; neurological problems

◦ Small head

◦ Low birth weight

Addictive Drugs

 Heroin, crack cocaine can lead to addiction in babies

 Babies must go through withdrawal

 More likely to have contracted HIV

 Not clear regarding long-term neurological problems; early studies did not differentiate prenatal from postnatal effects

 Often the problems are associated with low birth weight, and/or poor prenatal care

Postnatal Effects

 Breast feeding—some drugs passed this

way

 Most important: ineffective caretaker

◦ dulled, sleepy, not responsive: impairment in attachment

◦ Expose babies to others who are high: not protective

Domestic Violence

 Chronic v isolated; uni- v bi-directional

 Women get hurt more

 ―Coercive control‖ is chronic and may be more significant: ◦ Threats of physical violence ◦ Demeaning comments ◦ Isolation and control (jealousy, accountability of

whereabouts, financial dependency, restricting social contacts)

◦ Abuse of pets

 Critical issue: Should victims of coercive control be held responsible for not protecting children?

―Witnessing‖ Domestic Violence

 Seeing

 Hearing

 Hearing about it or seeing aftereffects

 Living in household with coercive control

dynamics

DV Raises Risk of Direct Child

Abuse  Children get caught in middle by accident or try

to intervene

 Physical abuse of child is more likely to occur by both parents

 Sexual abuse of child is more likely to occur by father

 Child is neglected as disempowered mother is unable to attend to child or comfort child

 Witnessing domestic violence is viewed as a type of psychological abuse of children (terrorizing)

Social Support

 Lack of social support has been

associated with risk of CA/N, re-referral,

and recurrence of CA/N

 Emotional support

 Concrete support

Childrearing Practices

 Developmentally appropriate child

development information

 Empathy/attunement to child’s emotional

needs

 Views on discipline

◦ Alternatives to corporal punishment

 Parent-child role reversal

 Views on child autonomy/independence

Ontogenetic Issues

 Temperament

 Disabilities, health issues

 Challenges of different ages

 Behavioral problems (can be caused by

past experiences, including abuse or

neglect)

Consider this…

 Given what you’ve learned, if you were

given $5 million to prevent child abuse in

your community, how would you spend

your funds?