Adopted and Foster Children – Number Five Risk Factor for Child Abuse

This is why we continue to keep our How Could You? Archives and try to combat the “love is all you need” mentality that is pervasive in the adoption world today. This further underscores the need for extensive, therapeutic training for prospective parents, especially those adopting special needs children. Many of the internationally-adopted children being placed have more than one of the top five risk factors. The delay in communicating their needs in their new language leads to the underreporting.

From Child Abuse [Medicine Net Medical Author:John Mersch, MD, FAAP and Medical Editor: John Mersch, MD, FAAP], “risk factors include

1. age: 67% of abused children are less than 1 year old; 80% are less than 3 years old;
2. past history of abuse: Repeated abuse has been shown to occur more than 50% of the time; repeatedly abused children have a 10% chance of sustaining a lethal event;
3. children with learning disabilities, speech/language disorders and mental retardation;
4. children with congenital anomalies (malformations) and chronic/recurrent conditions; and
5. adopted and foster children.”

“Complicating the collection of data is the general underreporting of child abuse. Very young children are incapable of verbally communicating the harm inflicted on them. Other factors such as fear, guilt, or confusion about the abuser’s erratic behavior may also hinder younger children from informing on their abuser”

“What is known about the perpetrators of child abuse?

Over 75% of inflicted abuse is a result of parental action. Parental risk factors include young or single parents, those who did not graduate from high school, and those who either were abused themselves as children or endured a severely dysfunctional home life. Adults using drugs, abusing alcohol, and those with psychiatric disease (for example, depression, impulse-control disorders) are more likely to abuse children. Females account for 61% of perpetrators.

A common theme when interviewing abusive individuals is an unrealistic expectation of infant or child behaviors. Often they expect developmental-milestone maturity beyond the age of the child (such as toilet training). Commonly, the child is incapable of providing what many parents anticipate to be unconditional love. The normally self-centered nature of childhood behavior clashes with the abusive adult’s expectations with disastrous results”

“Who abuses children?

According to the statistics, the majority of perpetrators of child mistreatment (77%) are parents and another 11% are other relatives of the victim. People who are in other caretaking relationships to the victim (for example, child-care providers, foster parents, and facility staff) account for only 2% of the offenders. About 10% of all perpetrators are classified as non-caretakers or unknown. In many states, child abusers by definition must be in a caretaking role.

An estimated 81% of all offenders are under age 40. Overall, approximately 61% of perpetrators are female, although the gender of the abuser differs by the type of mistreatment. Neglect and medical neglect are most often attributed to female caretakers, while sexual abuse is most often associated with male offenders.”

“What causes child abuse deaths?

The most lethal form of child abuse is neglect. Deaths from neglect can, for example, be caused by accidents due to lack of supervision or abandonment or from the failure to seek medical attention for an injury, illness, or condition.

Fatal injuries from mistreatment can and do result from many different acts. Children may die from severe head trauma (injury), shaken baby syndrome, trauma to the abdomen or chest, scalding, burns, drowning, suffocation, poisoning, starvation, etc.

“What factors predispose a person to child abuse?

Specialists evaluating an abused child’s environment and family background have noted several risk factors for potential abuse:

1. The abuser’s childhood: Approximately 20% of offenders were themselves abused as children.
2. The abuser’s substance abuse: Children in alcohol-abusing families are nearly four times more likely to be mistreated, almost five times more likely to be physically neglected, and 10 times more likely to be emotionally neglected than children in non-alcohol-abusing families. Of all child-abuse cases, 50%-80% involve some degree of substance abuse by the child’s parents.
3. Family stress: The disintegration of the nuclear family and its inherent support systems have been held to be associated with child abuse.
4. Social forces: Experts debate whether a presumed reduction in religious/moral values coupled with an increase in the depiction of violence by the entertainment and informational media may increase child abuse.
5. The child: Children at higher risk for abuse include infants who are felt to be “overly fussy,” handicapped children, and children with chronic diseases.

Specific “trigger” events that occur just before many fatal parental assaults on infants and young children include an infant’s inconsolable crying, feeding difficulties, a toddler’s failed toilet training, and exaggerated parental perceptions of acts of “disobedience” by the child.”

“What constitutes emotional child abuse?
Isolated emotional abuse is the least frequently reported form of child abuse (7% of all cases). This form is felt to be markedly underreported since it can be difficult to detect and document.

However, since it is a component of all forms of child abuse, it is the most pervasive of all the previously listed forms of child abuse. There are several categories of emotional abuse and they may occur as unique experiences or together in the same child. They include

rejecting (for example, refusing to acknowledge the child’s worth and emotional needs),

isolation (denying the child social experiences: locking child in the closet is an extreme example),

terrorizing (verbal assault with or without weapons),

ignoring (refusing to show affection),

corrupting (reinforcing destructive, antisocial, or sexually exploitative behaviors),

verbal assault (extreme sarcasm, name calling, public humiliation), and

over-pressuring (criticism of age-appropriate behaviors/skills as inadequate).”

“What more can be done to prevent child neglect?

As children’s advocates, we wish to remind parents about the importance of preventative child health care, including:

• proper use of car seats and seat belts;
• consistent use of helmets for bicycling, skateboarding, and skiing/snowboarding;
• pool and water safety;
• firearm safety;
• preventing community violence; and
• poisoning prevention”

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