Child Abuse and Neglect

The environment of child maltreatment: contextual factors and the development of psychopathology

“…Maltreating parents tend to be socially isolated from important sources of support (Wolfe & St. Pierre, 1989). This can be seen more globally as connected to general interpersonal skills and competence.…”

“…As mentioned above, there has been little empirical support for the commonly held belief that parental psychopathology (e.g., psychosis or severe mental illness) or personality factors contribute to maltreatment, but this may be due to the research methods. Studies have failed to directly address the link between parental diagnoses and the parent child relationship (Wolfe & St. Pierre, 1989) and levels of social support.…”

“…Their isolation may be due to their poor social skills (Azar et al, 1998). Consequently, these defi cits lead to poor assessments of stressful situations and an inability to generate alternative solutions, therefore increasing the likelihood that these parents will turn to violence (Wolfe & St. Pierre, 1989). Some variables related to social support include economic hardship, marital relationships, parental psychopathology, the parent-child relationship, parenting styles, parental attributions, and discipline techniques.…”

The identification and reporting of physical abuse by physicians: A review and implications for research

“…Although the consequences of maltreatment may be physical, behavioral, or emotional in nature (Hansen et al, 1990;Wolfe, 1988), the physical manifestations may be the most directly observable consequences. Identifi cation of maltreatment typically depends on the observation of the consequences of child maltreatment rather than direct observation of physically abusive behavior.…”

Anal/anogenital lesion revealing child sexual abuse: A case series of an unusual situation in a black African setting

“…According to WHO, child sexual abuse (CSA) is the involvement of a child in sexual activity that he/she does not fully understand and/or is unable to give informed consent [ 1 , 2 ]. Globally, the prevalence of genito-anal injuries after sexual abuse is estimated between 9% and 87% depending on the ages of the survivors in the sample, method of examination and the type of injuries included [ [3] , [4] , [5] ].…”