Parenting Toolbox Provides Answers for Your Family Today

Forget how to access your membership?

Celebrating 9 years of service to parents online!
newsletters>>
1.0 parentingWORKS
3.0 clinicalTOOLS
4.0 reports...

RECOMMENDED PARENTING TOOL:

Get Family Trivia and More in our Parenting FUN Toolbox

CLICK HERE!


"ParentWORKS Newsletter"


Did You Know: 

Growth spurts can start as early as 10 days after your baby’s birth.  Growth spurts usually are preceded by a sleepy, lethargic day and a big jump in appetite.  Growth spurts may happen again at 3, 6, and 12 weeks and again at 4 and 6 months.  If you begin to notice that your child is not as satisfied with the amount that you have been feeding her previously, then she may be beginning a growth spurt period.  If you are breastfeeding, you may want to add a feeding or two to satiate your baby’s appetite and to help increase milk production.

Hand Tools : Family Anger

Models of Child Abuse Prevention

By Ron Huxley, LMFT

Parenting is a challenge that can cause considerable stress in the lives of families. Added to the fact that many families do not have adequate information or support in their child raising chores, this stress may create the potential for child abuse or neglect. In fact, child maltreatment is one of the most critical problems that exist in the United States today. Each year thousands of children are maltreated in ways that lead to serious developmental, psychological and medical problems or even death. While major media attention may lead some to believe that child abuse is a recent phenomenon, the truth is that child maltreatment has occurred throughout history. One of the earliest accounts of child maltreatment occurred during the Greek and Roman periods were parents were allowed to severely punish their children for small acts of disobedience. It's only within the last two decades that child maltreatment has become the focus for research and legislation. The first White House Conference on Children was held in 1909. Not until 1974 was the problem of actual child abuse and neglect a focus of legislation. At this time, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act was enacted and the White House formed the National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect to address the problem of child maltreatment throughout the nation. These legislative actions, combined with the horror stories depicted in the public media, heightened society consciousness of how widespread the problem of child maltreatment was.

Incidence of Child Abuse and Neglect

While the actual incidence of child abuse is not known, it is estimated that one million children per year, in the United States, have been victimized by child abuse or neglect. The reality is that the number of reported cases may be only "the tip of the iceberg." One research study over a decade aga stated that over 850,000 reports were received by child protective agencies. Of this number, only 77,000 were reported as injuries by hospitals. It was determined that these hospitals failed to report almost half of the situations that would have met the definition of abuse. In a report on the state of California's children, it was revealed that 70 out of every 1,000 children were reported as having been abused or neglected (Children Now). What is the level of the problem, today, a decade later. The problem of child maltreatment is a growing problem.

An understanding of the causes of maltreatment and the means of intervention is needed to address the problem of child maltreatment.

Causes of Abuse and Neglect

There are four main approaches to understanding maltreatment. The four models are the psychiatric, sociological, social situation, and ecological model.

1. Psychiatric Model- This model was postulated in the early 1960's and considered abuse to be the result of neurotic or psychotic behavior. Although research has failed to discover a consistent set of personality traits of maltreating parents, researchers agree that most abusing parents were themselves abused as children and raised without love or nurturance.

2. Sociological Model- This model focuses on social values and social organization rather than on the internal dynamics of the individual. Child abuse is a result of cultural values, family stress, unemployment, and social isolation.

3. Social-Situation Model- This model views child abuse and neglect as the result of parent-child interaction. It takes into consideration the faulty communication patterns among the members of the family and stresses the influence of the environment.

4. Ecological Model- The ecological model seeks to integrate the various viewpoints of child abuse and neglect. In this model, psychiatric, sociological, and socio-situational perspectives all fit into a larger, more complex picture of child maltreatment. Each model of maltreatment is enmeshed within an ecological framework.

The Ecological Model is the only one that allows for all the approaches to be considered as important without overstressing or biasing one against the other. This approach give the most hope for the prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Next week, we will look at the definitions of child abuse and neglect and how this effects prevention.

*Fully referenced articles are available on request.

Earn 75% When You Become a Parenting Toolbox Affiliate!

We are one of ClickBanks Top Affiliate Products for Parents

Copyright 2008 Ron Huxley | Privacy Rights | Contact Us