Abstract
Our understanding of child abuse and neglect took a big step with the recognition of the “Battered-Child Syndrome,” while the United Nations and World Health Organisation have played key roles in improving its recognition internationally.
This chapter considers child abuse and neglect as it occurs in multiproblem families.
It seems likely that at least 1 in 4 children experience abuse and/or neglect before their 18th birthday, but complex barriers to detection result in only 1 in 5 affected children being recognized by child protection services.
Child abuse and neglect kill around 2 in 100,000 children per year. For those that survive, there is a dose-response relationship between exposure to abuse and neglect and big jumps in risk to developmental delay, damaging behaviors, diminished life chances, poor health, reduced life expectancy, and increased economic burden on society.
However, protective factors can mitigate the harmful effects of child abuse.
The author proposes an explanatory model for resilience, pathogenesis, and treatment. The availability of a “containing” parental figure, incremental and manageable doses of distress, and the development of symbolic thinking all help to build resilience. Abused and neglected children face “unbearable distress,” which acts as a “pathogen” that first shuts down thinking and creates “mindlessness” and second opens the door to re-enactments or “repetitions” which potentially “infect” others with the same pathogen. Treatment involves helping children to establish emotional connections with a trustworthy adult, build a mind so that they are capable of sitting with and thinking about distress, and diverting the impulse for repetition away from action and towards thinking.
Prevention is important, and more work is needed to integrate mental health services into child protection efforts.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
References
Anda RF, Bremner JD, Walker JD et al (2006) The enduring effects of abuse and related adverse experiences in childhood. A convergence of evidence from neurobiology and epidemiology. Eur Arch Psychiatry Clin Neurosci 256:174–186. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00406-005-0624-4
Bebbington P, Jonas S, Kuipers E et al (2011) Childhood sexual abuse and psychosis: data from a cross-sectional national psychiatric survey in England. Br J Psychiatry 199:29–37. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.083642. Epub 2011 Apr 20
Bellis MA, Hughes K, Ford K et al (2018) Adverse childhood experiences and sources of childhood resilience: a retrospective study of their combined relationships with child health and educational attendance. BMC Public Health 1:1. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-018-5699-8
Belsky J, van IJzendoorn MH (2017) Genetic differential susceptibility to the effects of parenting. Curr Opin Psychol 15:125–130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2017.02.021
BetterStart: Child Health and Development Research Group 2017 Child Protection in South Australia. https://health.adelaide.edu.au/betterstart/publications/reports/child-protection-in-south-australia.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Bilson A, Martin KEC (2016) Referrals and child protection in England: one in five children referred to children’s services and one in nineteen investigated before the age of five. Br J Soc Work:1–19. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcw054
Bilson A, Cant RL, Harries M et al (2015) A longitudinal study of children reported to the child protection department in Western Australia. Br J Soc Work 45:771–791. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bct164
Broadhurst K, Alrouh B, Yeend E et al (2015) Connecting events in time to identify a hidden population: birth mothers and their children in recurrent care proceedings in England British Journal of Social Work p 1–20. http://wp.lancs.ac.uk/recurrent-care/publications/
Brown DW, Anda RF, Tiemeier H et al (2009) Adverse childhood experiences and the risk of premature mortality. Am J Prevent Med 37:389–396. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2009.06.021
Butchart A, Harvey AP (2006) Preventing child maltreatment: a guide to taking action and generating evidence. World Health Organization, Geneva. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/43499/9241594365_eng.pdf?sequence=1
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2016) The ACE study survey data [unpublished data]. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Atlanta. https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childabuseandneglect/acestudy/index.html accessed 13th October 2019
Children Act 1989. http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1989/41/contents
Craig JM, Piquero AR, Farrington DP et al (2017) A little early risk goes a long bad way: adverse childhood experiences and life-course offending in the Cambridge study. J Crim Justice 53:34–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2017.09.005
Department for Education (2017) Characteristics of children in need: 2016 to 2017 England. https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/characteristics-of-children-in-need-2016-to-2017
Dube RS, Anda RF, Felitte VJ et al (2001) Childhood abuse, household dysfunction, and the risk of attempted suicide throughout the life span: findings from the adverse childhood experiences study. JAMA 286(24):3089–3096. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.286.24.3089. http://jama.ama-assn.org/cgi/content/full/286/24/3089
Dubowitz H, Hein H, Tummala P (2018) World perspectives on child abuse 13th Edition. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect. https://www.ispcan.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/World-Perspectives-on-Child-Abuse-2018_13th-Edition_Interactive.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Fang X, Brown DS, Florence CS et al (2012) The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention. Child Abuse Negl 36(2):156–165. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0145213411003140
Felitti VJ, Anda RF (2010) The relationship of adverse childhood experiences to adult health, well-being, social function and healthcare. In: Lanius RA, Vermetten E, Pain C (eds) The impact of early life trauma on health and disease: the hidden epidemic. Cambridge University Press. Available http://www.theannainstitute.org/Lanius.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Felitti VJ, Anda RF, Nordenberg D et al (1998) Relationship of childhood abuse and household dysfunction to many of the leading causes of death in adults. Am J Prevent Med 14:245–258. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0749-3797(98)00017-8
Fukkink RG (2008) Video feedback in the widescreen: a meta-analysis of family programs. Clin Psychol Rev 28(6):904–916. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2008.01.003. Epub 2008 Feb 5
Gilbert R, Widom CS, Browne K et al (2009) Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high income countries. Lancet 373:68–81. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(08)61706-7
Harwin J, Alrouh B, Broadhurst K et al (2018) Child and parent outcomes in the london family drug and alcohol court five years on: building on international evidence. Int J Law, Policy Family:1–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/lawfam/eby006
Hillis SD, Anda RF, Dube SR et al (2004) The association between adverse childhood experiences and adolescent pregnancy, long-term psychosocial consequences, and fetal death. Pediatrics 113:320–327
Hughes K, Bellis MA, Hardcastle KA et al (2017) The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Lancet Public Health 2(8):e356–e366. https://www.thelancet.com/pdfs/journals/lanpub/PIIS2468-2667(17)30118-4.pdf
Jonas S, Bebbington P, McManus S et al (2011) Sexual abuse and psychiatric disorder in England: results from the 2007 adult psychiatric morbidity survey. Psychol Med 41:709–720. https://doi.org/10.1017/S003329171000111X. Epub 2010 Jun 10
Kennedy H, Ball K, Barlow J (2017) How does video interaction guidance contribute to infant and parental mental health and well-being? Clin Child Psychol Psychiatry April 2017. https://doi.org/10.1177/1359104517704026
Kessler RC, McLaughlin KA, Green JG et al (2010) Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO world mental health surveys. Br J Psychiatry 197:378–385. https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.080499
Koball AM, Rasmussen C, Olson-Dorff D et al (2019) The relationship between adverse childhood experiences, healthcare utilization, cost of care and medical comorbidities. Child Abuse Negl 90:120–126. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chiabu.2019.01.021
Maguire SA, Williams B, Naughton AM et al (2015) A systematic review of the emotional, behavioural and cognitive features exhibited by school-aged children experiencing neglect or emotional abuse. Child Care Health Dev 41(5):641–653. https://doi.org/10.1111/cch.12227
Mawson C (1994) Containing anxiety in work with damaged children. In: Obholzer A, Roberts VZ (eds) The unconscious at work. Routledge, London, pp p67–p74
Music G (2019) Nurturing children from trauma to growth using attachment theory, psychoanalysis and neurobiology. Routledge, London
Oh DL, Jerman P, Silvério Marques S et al (2018) Systematic review of pediatric health outcomes associated with childhood adversity. BMC Pediatr 18:83. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12887-018-1037-7
Prevoo MJL, Stoltenborgh M, Alink LRA et al (2017) Methodological moderators in prevalence studies on child maltreatment: review of a series of meta-analyses. Child Abuse Rev 26:141–157. https://doi.org/10.1002/car.2433
Reeder N, Whitehead S (2016) Better courts: the financial impact of the London Family Drug and Alcohol Court. Center for Justice Innovation. https://justiceinnovation.org/publications/better-courts-financial-impact-london-family-drug-and-alcohol-court
Roos LE, Afifi TO, Martin CG et al (2016) Linking typologies of childhood adversity to adult incarceration: findings from a nationally representative sample. Am J Orthopsychiatry 86(5):584–593. https://doi.org/10.1037/ort0000144
Sethi D, Hughes K, Bellis M et al (2010) European report preventing violence and knife crime among young people. WHO Regional Office for Europe, Copenhagen. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0012/121314/E94277.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Sonu S, Post S, Feinglass J (2019) Adverse childhood experiences and the onset of chronic disease in young adulthood. Prev Med 123:163–170. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ypmed.2019.03.032
U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Children’s Bureau (2018) Child Maltreatment 2016. https://www.acf.hhs.gov/cb/research-data-technology/statistics-research/child-maltreatment. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
UNESCO eAtlas http://on.unesco.org/gender-map. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
UNICEF (2018) The State of the World’s Children 2017: children in a digital world. https://www.unicef.org/publications/files/SOWC_2017_ENG_WEB.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
UNICEF. A summary of the UN convention on the rights of the child. https://www.unicef.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/UNCRC_summary-1.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Valentino K (2017) Relational interventions for maltreated children. Child Dev 88(2):359–367. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.12735
Vlahovicova K, Melendez-Torres CJ, Leijten P et al (2017) Parenting programs for the prevention of child physical abuse recurrence: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Child Fam Psychol Rev 20:351–365. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10567-017-0232-7
Waddell M (1998) Inside lives psychoanalysis and the growth of the personality. Karnac
Wakelyn J (2020) Therapeutic approaches with babies and young children in care. Tavistock Clinic Series
Werner E (1989) High-risk children in young adulthood A longitudinal study from birth to 32 years. Am J Orthopsychiatry 59(1):p72–p81
World Health Organisation (1999) Report of the consultation on child abuse prevention 29–31 March 1999, WHO, Geneva. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/65900. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
World Health Organisation (2008) Eliminating female genital mutilation: an interagency statement. WHO, Department of Reproductive Health and Research, Geneva. Accessed 2 Jan 2019: http://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/10665/43839/1/9789241596442_eng.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
World Health Organisation (2013) European report on preventing child maltreatment. Copenhagen. http://www.euro.who. https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/326375/9789289000284-eng.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
World Health Organisation (2018) European status report on preventing child maltreatment. http://www.euro.who.int/__data/assets/pdf_file/0017/381140/wh12-ecm-rep-eng.pdf?ua=1. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
World Health Organization (2010) Preventing intimate partner and sexual violence against women. Taking action and generating evidence. Geneva. https://www.who.int/violence_injury_prevention/publications/violence/9789241564007_eng.pdf. Accessed 13 Oct 2019
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Section Editor information
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this entry
Cite this entry
Shaw, M. (2020). Child Abuse and Neglect in Multiproblem Families. In: Taylor, E., Verhulst, F., Wong, J., Yoshida, K., Nikapota, A. (eds) Mental Health and Illness of Children and Adolescents. Mental Health and Illness Worldwide. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_16-1
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-10-0753-8_16-1
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8
Online ISBN: 978-981-10-0753-8
eBook Packages: Springer Reference Behavioral Science and PsychologyReference Module Humanities and Social SciencesReference Module Business, Economics and Social Sciences