Areas of Child Abuse In the last decade alone, over 2,50

In the last decade alone, over 2,500 studies of child abuse have been published (PsychLit database, 1992). In general, these studies have focused on the following areas: (1) Incidence and Type of Abuse; (2) Factors that place children at risk for abuse; (3) effects of child abuse; and (4) interventions aimed at preventing abuse. The review of literature presented here examines a sampling of studies in each of these primary areas of research inquiry. The review ends with a summary of the major findings.

Types of Abuse. In 1973, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act legally defined child abuse and neglect as follows:

Child abuse and neglect means the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, neglect treatment, or maltreatment of a child under the age of eighteen by a person who is responsible for the child's welfare under circumstances which indicate that the child's health or welfare is harmed or threatened thereby. . .

In 1974, this Act was further amended to include pornographic photographing, rape, incest, prostitution, and other forms of sexual exploitation that harm children's health or welfare.

Incidence. A great deal of the child abuse literature has been devoted to computing incidence rates for child abuse. Indeed, rates have been computed for institutional abuse (Powers, Mooney & Nunno, 1990), specific types of abuse such as incest (e.g. Banning, 1989), abuse rates committed by state (e.g. Harries, 1988). Howeve

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ple, Beckman and Burns (1990) found that in a sample of 340 women (ages 17 to 55 years) with eating disorders, the incidence of extra-familial sexual abuse was high. In another study of bulimic patients, Root and Fallon (1988) also found a high incidence of physical and sexual abuse as children. Rew (1989) found that of 55 baccalaureate nursing students, students who had been abused as children had significantly lower self-esteem and significantly higher levels of depression than did students who were not abused. In another study of the long-term effects of abuse, Coons, Bowman, Pellow and Schneider (1989) assessed the frequency of child abuse, adult traumatization, the presence of symptomatology of posttraumatic stress (PTS) and dissociation in a sample of 140 psychiatric patients from 17 to 67 years of age. The authors reported that high levels of child abuse were found among patients with dissociative disorder and borderline personality disorder; further, patients with dissociative disorder had experienced an increased incidence of rape and wife battery in adulthood. Coons et al (1989) concluded that there was aa definite need to assess all psychiatric patients for either physical or sexual abuse as children. They furt

Category: Psychology - A