The development and piloting of the ISPCAN child abuse screening tool-parent version (ICAST-P)

Objective Child maltreatment is a problem that has longer recognition in the northern hemisphere and in high-income countries. Recent work has highlighted the nearly universal nature of the problem in other countries but demonstrated the lack of comparability of studies because of the variations in definitions and measures used. The International Society for the Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect has developed instrumentation that may be used with cross-cultural and cross-national benchmarking by local investigators. Design and sampling The instrument design began with a team of expert in Brisbane in 2004. A large bank of questions were subjected to two rounds of Delphi review to develop the fielded version of the instrument. Convenience samples included approximately 120 parent respondents with children under the age of 18 in each of six countries (697 total). Results This paper presents an instrument that measures parental behaviors directed at children and reports data from pilot work in 6 countries and 7 languages. Patterns of response revealed few missing values and distributions of responses that generally were similar in the six countries. Subscales performed well in terms of internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha in very good range (0.77–0.88) with the exception of the neglect and sex abuse subscales. Results varied by child age and gender in expected directions but with large variations among the samples. About 15% of children were shaken, 24% hit on the buttocks with an object, and 37% were spanked. Reports of choking and smothering were made by 2% of parents. Conclusion These pilot data demonstrate that the instrument is well tolerated and captures variations in, and potentially harmful forms of child discipline. Practice implications The ISPCAN Child Abuse Screening Tool – Parent Version (ICAST-P) has been developed as a survey instrument to be administered to parents for the assessment of child maltreatment in a multi-national and multi-cultural context. It was developed with broad input from international experts and subjected to Dephi review, translation, and pilot testing in six countries. The results of the Delphi study and pilot testing are presented. This study demonstrates that a single instrument can be used in a broad range of cultures and languages with low rates of missing data and moderate to high internal consistency.

Legislation Concerning Reporting of Child Sexual Abuse and Child Trafficking in India: A Closer Look

The increasing rate of child sexual abuse and child trafficking has become a serious concern for national and international policy makers. Because these acts are criminal, result in serious harms to the child, and occur in closed scenarios where the situation is concealed, it is very important for people who become aware of the acts to report the incidents to the appropriate authority. Reporting of incidents could help provide justice to the victim and penalize the perpetrators. In addition, it would help us to understand the nature and magnitude of the problem. The objective of this chapter is first to review the Indian legislation concerning mandatory reporting of child abuse and neglect, and second to consider the potential for mandatory reporting of two categories of child maltreatment in particular in the Indian context: sexual abuse and child trafficking.

Introduction to the development of the ISPCAN child abuse screening tools

The World Report on Children and Violence, (Pinheiro, 2006) was produced at the request of the UN Secretary General and the UN General Assembly. This report recommended improvement in research on child abuse. ISPCAN representatives took this charge and developed 3 new instruments. We describe this background and introduce three new measures designed to assess the incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect.

What parents value from formal support services in the context of identified child abuse

Parents whose children are identified as having experienced or being at risk of experiencing significant harm potentially provide an invaluable dimension to our understanding of the circumstances that result in child abuse or neglect and how best to respond to these invariably complex situations. This paper reports findings from a study of the experiences of six parents. In-depth interviews were conducted with four mothers and two fathers who had been referred to an intensive family support services by the Queensland statutory child protection authority. Using a critical ecological perspective, the study focused on identifying and understanding the experiences of the parents in using formal family support services, including aspects of service delivery that were helpful or unhelpful. Parents also commented on their experiences of statutory child protection services. Service components and worker qualities that parents identified as being helpful included being accessible, targeted and integrated and being able to meet a continuum of needs, from a micro to a broader level. Their reports provide invaluable insight into how formal family support services, including child protection services, can better meet the needs of parents in addressing the recurring problem of child maltreatment.

Victoria's Child FIRST and IFS differential response system : progress and issues

Differential response has long been utilized by statutory child protection systems in Australia. This article describes the advent and history of Victoria's differential response system, with a particular focus on the Child FIRST and IFS programme. This program entails a partnership arrangement between the Department of Human Services child protection services and community-based, not-for-profit agencies to provide a diverse range of early intervention and prevention services. The findings of a recent external service system evaluation, a judicial inquiry, and the large-scale Child and Family Services Outcomes Survey of parents/carers perspectives of their service experiences are used to critically examine the effectiveness of this differential response approach. Service-user perspectives of the health and wellbeing of children and families are identified, as well as the recognized implementation issues posing significant challenges for the goal of an integrated partnership system. The need for ongoing reform agendas is highlighted along with the policy, program and structural tensions that exist in differential response systems, which are reliant upon partnerships and shared responsibilities for protecting children and assisting vulnerable families. Suggestions are made for utilizing robust research and evaluation that gives voice to service users and promotes their rights and interests.

Identifying child sexual abuse within school contexts : policy problems and solutions, and a landmark case

As a strategy to identify child sexual abuse, most Australian States and Territories have enacted legislation requiring teachers to report suspected cases. Some Australian State and non-State educational authorities have also created policy-based obligations to report suspected child sexual abuse. Significantly, these can be wider than non-existent or limited legislative duties, and therefore are a crucial element of the effort to identify sexual abuse. Yet, no research has explored the existence and nature of these policy-based duties. The first purpose of this paper is to report the results of a three-State study into policy-based reporting duties in State and non-State schools in Australia. In an extraordinary coincidence, while conducting the study, a case of failure to comply with reporting policy occurred with tragic consequences. This led to a rare example in Australia (and one of only a few worldwide) of a professional being prosecuted for failure to comply with a legislative duty. It also led to disciplinary proceedings against school staff. The second purpose of this paper is to describe this case and connect it with findings from our policy analysis.

Australian laws and policies on child neglect

This chapter describes the features of different Australian State and Territory laws and policies about child neglect. It makes observations about three major domains of law and policy: laws about child neglect to enable protection of children who are suffering severe neglect (child protection laws); laws and policies about the provision of services for children and their families when experiencing neglect (support-oriented laws and policies); and criminal laws about child neglect.

The utility and challenges of using ICD codes in child maltreatment research : a review of existing literature

Objective: The objectives of this article are to explore the extent to which the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (ICD) has been used in child abuse research, to describe how the ICD system has been applied and to assess factors affecting the reliability of ICD coded data in child abuse research.----- Methods: PubMed, CINAHL, PsychInfo and Google Scholar were searched for peer reviewed articles written since 1989 that used ICD as the classification system to identify cases and research child abuse using health databases. Snowballing strategies were also employed by searching the bibliographies of retrieved references to identify relevant associated articles. The papers identified through the search were independently screened by two authors for inclusion, resulting in 47 studies selected for the review. Due to heterogeneity of studies metaanalysis was not performed.----- Results: This paper highlights both utility and limitations of ICD coded data. ICD codes have been widely used to conduct research into child maltreatment in health data systems. The codes appear to be used primarily to determine child maltreatment patterns within identified diagnoses or to identify child maltreatment cases for research.----- Conclusions: A significant impediment to the use of ICD codes in child maltreatment research is the under-ascertainment of child maltreatment by using coded data alone. This is most clearly identified and, to some degree, quantified, in research where data linkage is used. Practice Implications: The importance of improved child maltreatment identification will assist in identifying risk factors and creating programs that can prevent and treat child maltreatment and assist in meeting reporting obligations under the CRC.

Patterns of reporting to child protection services in Canada by healthcare and nonhealthcare professionals

Background: All Canadian jurisdictions require certain professionals to report suspected or observed child maltreatment. This study examined the types of maltreatment, level of harm and child functioning issues, controlling for family socioeconomic status, age and gender of the child reported by healthcare and non-healthcare professionals. Methods: We conducted chi-square analyses and logistic regression on a national child welfare sample from the 2003 Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect (CIS-2003) and compared the differences in professional reporting with its previous cycle (CIS-1998) using Bonferroni-corrected confidence intervals. Results: Our analysis of CIS-2003 data revealed that the majority of substantiated child maltreatment is reported to service agencies by non-healthcare professionals (57%), followed by non-professionals (33%) and healthcare professionals (10%). The number of professional reports increased 2.5 times between CIS-1998 and CIS-2003, while non-professionals’ increased 1.7 times. Of the total investigations, professional reports represented 59% in CIS-1998 and 67% in CIS-2003 (p<0.001). Compared to non-healthcare professionals, healthcare professionals more often reported younger children, children who experienced neglect and emotional maltreatment and those assessed as suffering harm and child functioning issues, but less often exposure to domestic violence. Conclusion: The results indicate that healthcare professionals played an important role in identifying children in need of protection considering harm and other child functioning issues. The authors discuss the reasons why underreporting is likely to remain an issue.

Child welfare policy and practice on children’s exposure to domestic violence

There are emerging movements in several countries to improve policy and practice to protect children from exposure to domestic violence. These movements have resulted in the collection of new data on EDV and the design and implementation of new child welfare policies and practices. To assist with the development of child welfare practice, this article summarizes current knowledge on the prevalence of EDV, and on child welfare services policies and practices that may hold promise for reducing the frequency and impact of EDV on children. We focus on Australia, Canada, and the United States, as these countries share a similar socio-legal context, a long history of enacting and expanding legislation about reporting of maltreatment, debates regarding the application of reporting laws to EDV, and new child welfare practices that show promise for responding more effectively to EDV.

The battered child syndrome : changes in the law and child advocacy

In 1962, Dr C. Henry Kempe and his colleagues published the single most important article written to date about child maltreatment: The Battered-Child Syndrome. This chapter analyses the threefold nature of what these authors achieved: clearly identifing the medical evidence of severe child physical abuse and naming it as a syndrome; identifying the medical profession's resistance to its identification; and then translating their scholarship into advocacy for social and legal change. The chapter also traces some of the effects of Kempe's work, including the nature and effect of the subsequent introduction of mandatory reporting laws in the USA and internationally.

Consequences of introducing mandatory reporting legislation for child sexual abuse

To improve detection of child sexual abuse, many jurisdictions have enacted mandatory reporting laws requiring selected persons to report known and suspected cases. In Ireland, the Child First approach previously incorporated only a policy-based approach to reporting. Due to a perceived lack of efficacy, the Children First Bill was drafted in 2012 to shift this policy guidance to a legislative approach. What effects will the new legislative reporting duties have on numbers of reports, and outcomes of reports, of suspected child sexual abuse? This paper will shed light on these important questions by presenting results of analyses of the introduction of legislative reporting obligations in two Australian States. Three questions will be explored: 1. Does introducing reporting legislation result in enhanced detection of child sexual abuse? 2. Do different reporter groups have different patterns of reporting? 3. What do the patterns of report numbers and outcomes indicate for child protection systems and communities?

Using law to identify, manage and prevent child maltreatment

This chapter identifies ways in which laws are capable of responding to child maltreatment, both as an immediate regulator of conduct, and as an influence on a society’s cultural development and approach to children’s welfare. Informed by practices and experiences in selected common law systems, the chapter provides examples of legal mechanisms that can inform discussion of optimal strategies to identify and manage child maltreatment in many different societies. Both positive and negative aspects of these mechanisms are noted. While controversies arise as to what kinds of laws are best in preventing and responding to child maltreatment, and even, more fundamentally, whether there is a role for law in protecting children, this chapter offers evidence that a variety of legal tools can be employed to address child abuse and neglect, for any cultural setting in which there is willingness to act to prevent and treat its various forms.

The burden of child maltreatment in the East Asia and Pacific region

This study estimated the health and economic burden of child maltreatment in the East Asia and Pacific region, addressing a significant gap in the current evidence base. Systematic reviews and meta-analyses were conducted to estimate the prevalence of child physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and witnessing parental violence. Population Attributable Fractions were calculated and Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) lost from physical and mental health outcomes and health risk behaviors attributable to child maltreatment were estimated using the most recent comparable Global Burden of Disease data. DALY losses were converted into monetary value by assuming that one DALY is equal to the sub-region’s per capita GDP. The estimated economic value of DALYs lost to violence against children as a percentage of GDP ranged from 1.24% to 3.46% across sub-regions defined by the World Health Organization. The estimated economic value of DALYs (in constant 2000 US$) lost to child maltreatment in the EAP region totaled US $151 billion, accounting for 1.88% of the region’s GDP. Updated to 2012 dollars, the estimated economic burden totaled US $194 billion. In sensitivity analysis, the aggregate costs as a percentage of GDP range from 1.36% to 2.52%. The economic burden of child maltreatment in the East Asia and Pacific region is substantial, indicating the importance of preventing and responding to child maltreatment in this region. More comprehensive research into the impact of multiple types of childhood adversity on a wider range of putative health outcomes is needed to guide policy and programs for child protection in the region, and globally.

Queensland College of Teachers annual lecture 2010 : child protection

Teachers have a crucial role as “sentinels” for children who have been abused or neglected. This professional development session will provide a framework for understanding the types, incidence and causes of child abuse and neglect, and teachers’ role in reporting suspected cases. The session will provide participants with knowledge and skills to enable them to identify warning signs and indicators of child abuse and neglect, know the basis of their duties to report suspected cases of abuse and neglect, and respond to the needs of abused and neglected children at school. The presentation will focus on: • the reasons why child abuse and neglect can occur; • the different types of child abuse and neglect and their effects on children; • the warning signs and indicators of physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse and neglect; • applying knowledge of indicators to make judgements about risk of harm; • responding to indications of risk of harm, including complying with legislative and policy-based duties to report suspected child abuse and neglect.