According to the U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect, child abuse reached the point of being considered a public health crisis in the 1990s. The Center for Disease control has suggested that abuse or neglect plays a role in 5.4 deaths per 100,000 children aged 4 or younger. Child abuse neglect cuts across all racial, ethnic, religious and socioeconomic boundaries. There is no one single cause of child abuse, but rather a constellation of risk factors that combine to create the probability of and opportunity for abuse.
Poverty and Its Stressors
Socioeconomic stresses can create circumstances in which child abuse occurs. According to the Third National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect, or NIS-3, by Andrea J. Sedlak and Diane D. Broadhurst, child abuse and neglect was more prevalent in homes where family income was less than $15,000 per year.
NIS-3 uses two definitions of child maltreatment: the Harm Standard and the Endangerment Standard. According to the Child Abuse Statistics published by the organization YesICan, the Harm Standard is maltreatment where "children are counted as maltreated only if they have already experienced demonstrable harm," and the Endangerment Standard considers maltreatment where children "have experienced maltreatment that puts them at risk of demonstrable harm."
With respect to poverty as it relates to the incidence of child abuse, NIS-3 compared abuse incidences in families with incomes less than $15,000 per year with families with incomes of $30,000 per year and found that children of families making less than $15,000 per year were: 44 times more likely to experience neglect by any definitional standard; almost 18 times more likely to be sexually abused by either standard; 29 times more likely to experience emotional neglect by the Harm Standard; over 27 times more likely to experience emotional neglect by the Endangerment Standard; and nearly 56 times more likely to be subjected to educational neglect by either definitional standard. Multiple other significant differences were found.
Stressors created by poverty that contribute to abuse are: residential instability, higher incidences of substance abuse and emotional disorders, poorer education, isolation and inadequate parental social and familial support.
Perpetrator's History of Abuse
In the publication "Causes and Prevention of Child Abuse" published by Oregon State University, causes and risks of child abuse are said to relate directly the history and stress factors of the perpetrators. Caregivers and parents who were themselves victims of abuse are more likely to abuse children themselves. This suggests that child abuse is a learned parenting behavior.
Handicap and Infancy
Children who are emotionally and physically handicapped have an increased risk of abuse. Abuse is most severe for children under the age of 1 year, and the majority of abuse-neglect related fatalities occur in children under the age of 4. These facts suggest that the reality of the extreme dependency of infants, toddlers and handicapped children, and their need for physical care, can be stressors for overwhelmed parents and caregivers who lack coping skills and mechanisms for dealing with their anger and frustrations. There is also an association of abuse incidents with toilet training activity. This abuse is more common among uneducated parents and caregivers.
References
- U.S. Advisory Board on Child Abuse and Neglect: A Nation's Shame: Fatal Child Abuse and Neglect in the United States; April 1995
- U.S. Department of Health & Human Services: Child Abuse 2007; 2007
- Pediatrics: The Psychological Maltreatment of Children---Technical Report Steven W. Kairys, M.D., M.P.H., Charles F. Johnson, M.D.; April 2002
- American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: Child Sexual Abuse; May 2008
- Oregon State University: The Causes and Prevention of Child Abuse; February 2006
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