Child Abuse & Neglect最新文献

Rationale: Most child well-being and childhood adversity research is informed by proxy informants such as parents or teachers rather than children and youth. This may be due to concerns about perceived sensitivity, challenges accessing and engaging with children in research, ethical considerations, and apprehensions about causing undue harm and distress. This study aimed to understand adolescents' identification of, and reactions to, questions in the context of participating in a survey of well-being and adversity.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to enhance our understanding of how adolescents identify and respond to potentially upsetting questions about well-being and life experiences, including childhood adversity.

Method: Data were from 1002 adolescent respondents aged 14 to 17 years. The Well-being and Experiences (WE) survey assessed several domains of life, including general health and well-being and early life adversity. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, logistic regression models, and thematic analysis approaches.

Results: Few adolescent respondents reported feeling upset when completing the survey (11.2 %). Among those who reported feeling upset, 92.0 % indicated that it was still important to ask those upsetting questions, and only two respondents (1.8 %) thought upsetting questions should be removed. Ten themes emerged from the adolescents' reflections on self-reported upsetting questions, including identity and life satisfaction, motivation, mental health, and school; childhood adversity was not primarily identified.

Conclusions: Findings indicate that conducting research on well-being and childhood adversity directly with adolescents is feasible and minimally distressing. Future research should consider how to engage youth directly in research to understand better the scope and outcomes associated with childhood adversity.

Background: The detrimental effects of childhood neglect on adult health outcomes are well-recognized; however, less is known about factors that may attenuate this relationship.

Objective: (1) To examine the associations between childhood neglect and various physical and mental health outcomes in adulthood among those who had not experienced childhood physical or sexual abuse; and (2) To determine whether adjusting for risk and protective factors, including socioeconomic status, health behaviors, and the presence of a trusted adult, attenuates these relationships.

Participants and setting: Data came from the 2021 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), a representative sample of community-dwelling US adults (n = 41,322).

Methods: The relationships between childhood neglect and health outcomes were investigated using logistic regression analyses. Adjustments were made for demographics, socioeconomic status, health behaviors, and the presence of a protective adult.

Results: Childhood neglect was significantly associated with adverse health outcomes, including health behaviors (e.g., smoking, low physical activity), physical health indicators (e.g., self-reported fair/poor health, stroke, asthma, COPD), disabilities (e.g., hearing impairment, vision impairment, cognitive impairment, difficulty walking or climbing stairs, difficulty bathing), and mental health indicators (e.g., poor mental health/past month, depression) after controlling for demographics. All significant associations indicated small or very small effect sizes. Associations were substantially attenuated when controlling for adult socioeconomic status, and further attenuated when controlling for the presence of a protective adult, with several outcomes becoming non-significant.

Conclusions: Socioeconomic status and the presence of a protective adult in childhood considerably diminishes the association between childhood neglect and health outcomes in adulthood.

Background: Sexually abused adolescents face numerous challenges during criminal proceedings against their perpetrators, from the initial report and during investigations, prosecutorial preparations, and testifying in court. Despite international and national norms regarding children's right to participation in decision-making processes affecting them, its fulfillment throughout the criminal process against their abusers is often limited.

Objective: The paper aims to describe and conceptualize the experiences of sexually abused adolescents of their participation in decision-making junctures during the criminal process.

Participants and setting: This qualitative-phenomenological study is based on the narratives of twelve Israeli sexually exploited youth (aged 14-22) who were involved in criminal justice processes following their victimization.

Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed inductively, until reaching theoretical conceptualization.

Results: We identify four major themes shaping the ways young victims experienced their participation throughout the criminal process: (1) The extent to which clear and age-appropriate information was delivered to them; (2) participants' need for a trusting relationship; (3) experiences of being ignored and excluded; and (4) the use of manipulative or coercive methods toward the child. Participation experiences were heavily influenced by the behaviors and approaches of the people around the children, as emerging from the interviewees' narratives.

Conclusions: Findings suggest an understanding of young victims' participation in the criminal process as occurring within an eco-system, and demonstrate how people in the circles around them can promote or hinder their meaningful and safe participation in criminal processes. Further studies are needed to test these initial results in larger and representative samples.

Background: Attrition of child sexual abuse (CSA) cases occurs at different stages of investigation, and only a small proportion of the cases reported to police are referred for prosecution. Different factors have been linked with the prosecution of CSA cases; however, little is known about how prosecutors determine which cases should proceed and which should not.

Objectives: This paper investigated criteria and thresholds used by prosecuting lawyers in deciding whether a child sexual abuse case should proceed.

Participants and setting: Fifty-six Australian prosecution case files (79 complainants; 58 defendants) were reviewed. The cases included contemporaneous and historical allegations of child sexual abuse, ranging from a single incident to repeated, protracted abuse over a decade.

Method: Written notes and emails in prosecutors' files were searched for perceptions of the complainants, decisions to proceed and verdicts.

Results: When a complainant was considered inconsistent in some way, giving rise to recorded concerns about their credibility or reliability, 82.3 % of these cases culminated in discontinuance or an acquittal. Conversely, 78 % of cases with complainants who were regarded as largely consistent throughout the investigation resulted in a conviction. Recorded issues with a complainant's memory of the events, cognitive capacity, and confusion about the alleged assault were not associated with case outcomes.

Conclusion: Most CSA cases that were referred for prosecution resulted in proceeding with charges against the defendant. Perceived issues with the consistency and credibility of the complainants' evidence were the most important decisional factors.