Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2008. / Title from title screen (site viewed February 25, 2010). PDF text: xv, 136 p. : ill. ; 1 Mb. UMI publication number: AAT 3371944. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--UCLA, 2009. / Vita. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 184-232).

Child abuse is a well-known child care problem. Classically, there are four main types of abuse: physical, sexual and emotional abuse, and neglect. The incidence is often underestimated because a number of cases are not severe enough for caregivers to seek medical help. However, the more severe forms of child abuse can lead to significant morbidity and even mortality. Many studies have addressed the characteristics and outcomes of child abuse. However, the financial burden of child abuse that individuals and society bear has not been well examined. In this study, the economic burden of hospitalisation for child abuse in Hong Kong is analysed. Data of 7,713 child hospitalisations and of 61,879 child visits to accident and emergency departments of public hospitals, all resulting from child abuse from 2003 to 2012, were retrieved from the Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System. The data are analysed with particular respect to cost of child abuse. The total inpatient cost of child abuse is HK$186,046,210, which is higher than the total inpatient cost of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (HK$171,895,920) but lower than that of children with asthma (HK$1,156,082,970). The average inpatient cost of child abuse per visit is HK$24,127, which is higher than the average inpatient cost of children with asthma (HK$14,458) but lower than the cost of children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (HK$39,165). In comparisons of the average inpatient costs of the various types of child abuse to those of asthma and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, each type of child abuse has higher average inpatient costs than asthma but lower than acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. Neglect produces the highest average cost (HK$33,606), followed by multiple abuse (HK$25,849) and then emotional abuse (HK$25,807), unspecified abuse (HK$25,090), physical abuse (HK$24,432) and sexual abuse (HK$17,807). The overall accident and emergency department cost for child abuse is HK$43,394,400, which is much higher than the overall cost for children with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (HK$1,193,500) but lower than that for children with asthma (HK$120,297,100). The mean cost for abuse per child is HK$5,784, which is higher than that per child with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (HK$2,411) but lower than that per child with asthma (HK$6,389). Comparisons of the mean accident and emergency department costs of the various types of child abuse to asthma and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia showed that each type of child abuse has a higher mean cost than that of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia, while only neglect and emotional abuse have higher mean costs than asthma. Of the mean accident and emergency department charges for each type of child abuse, neglect has the highest average cost (HK$7,108), followed by emotional abuse (HK$6,489), and then sexual abuse (HK$5,890), multiple abuse (HK$5,851), unspecified abuse (HK$5,823) and physical abuse (HK$5,720). The total and average costs of hospitalisation for child abuse in the Chinese population are higher than those in the non-Chinese population. Comparisons of the total cost and the average cost of hospitalisation between sexes showed that girls account for a higher total cost but lower average cost than boys. Of the three age groups of children, the 6-12 year-olds incur the highest total hospitalisation cost and the 0- to 6-year-olds had the highest mean hospitalisation cost. The costs of hospitalisations by different pay codes for child abuse, asthma, and acute lymphoblastic leukaemia are analysed. In conclusion, compared to children with asthma, the severity of child abuse is high while the frequency of it is low. Interventions to reduce the severity of child abuse are to be considered. To compare to the other control group, the frequency of child abuse is more common and the severity of it is lower than that of children with ALL. Interventions to reduce the frequency of child abuse are in high priority compared to ALL. To the overall costs of hospitalisations for types of abuse, the financial burden of overall inpatient cost of physical abuse is high while financial burden of inpatient cost of individual cases of it is just average. Hence the frequency of physical abuse is high but its severity is low. Meanwhile, the financial burden per inpatient case of neglect is high while the total financial burden of hospitalisations for neglect is low. Hence the severity of neglect is high but its frequency is low. The data in this study could be used to further analyse the cost of child abuse, including non-medical costs and indirect costs, and for cost-effectiveness analysis. / published_or_final_version / Paediatrics and Adolescent Medicine / Master / Master of Medical Sciences

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This study investigated how social understandings influence, and often obscure, individual perception. As a replication ofLindblom's (2002) study conducted in Sweden, the aim of this project was to investigate how individuals, studying towards a health care degree such as psychology, handle the occurrence of Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) when presented with it. To this end, participants were presented with a picture designed to represent CSA and were asked to interpret the nature of the picture. Following this, participants completed the Child Sexual Abuse Myth Scale (CSAMS) which served to highlight whether the three predominant social stereotypes surrounding CSA, namely, Blame Diffusion, Denial of Abusiveness and Restrictive Stereotypes, were influential in the interpretations participants offered surrounding the picture representing CSA. It was discovered that participants who scored significantly higher on the myth scale for the myths, Denial of Abusiveness and Restrictive Stereotypes, were more likely to misinterpret CSA when presented with it. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of Natal, Durban, 2004

Sixty teachers from the Ottawa-Carleton region of Canada were surveyed to measure their knowledge of child maltreatment risk indicators, knowledge of reporting procedures, and the frequency of reporting sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. Correlations did not support the hypothesis of a significant relationship between knowledge and actual reporting frequency. Multiple Regression analyses demonstrated that the knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and the knowledge of reporting procedures were not predictive of reporting. It was found that the teachers sampled were very knowledgeable of the basic risk indicators of child maltreatment and reporting procedures and policy. However, the findings did not support the hypotheses of a significant relationship between knowledge of child maltreatment risk factors and of reporting procedures and actual reporting frequency. These findings are discussed in consideration of the limitations of the current study, the implications for practice and the possibilities for further research.

The purpose of this study was to examine the links between child maltreatment and animal abuse, how these two forms of maltreatment often occur simultaneously within a family and how the existence of one maltreatment type should alert professionals to the potential for other types of harm. File reviews were completed at both Family and Children's Services of Renfrew County (FCS) and the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (OSPCA), Renfrew County Branch. Data were collected on relevant variables, including maltreatment type, removal and return of children/animals, legal involvement and risk ratings. A total of 188 common files were found, representing almost 25% of OSPCA cases in a 6-year period; 48% of these cases were open at both agencies at the same time. When the files for the two agencies were merged, several statistically significant correlations were found, including: correlations between physical harm to pets and domestic violence for FCS clients; between Criminal Code charges for FCS clients and police involvement for OSPCA clients; and between removals of children from families involved with FCS and neglect of pets. These findings suggest that there is a need for cross-training and cross-reporting between child protection and animal welfare sectors to ensure better protection of both children and animals.

This thesis examines risk as it applies to children and youth. Specifically, this thesis examines the way that risk enables the governance of child and youth populations. The central argument of this thesis will be that risk creates the maltreated child as a potential delinquent. There is a vast body of literature which has examined a perceived relationship between child maltreatment and juvenile offending. On this basis, a high level of risk has been ascribed to the maltreated child in terms of their potential to engage in criminal and antisocial behaviour. This argument is positioned as a claim of truth, with the truth being that maltreated children are more likely to engage in juvenile delinquency than nonmaltreated children. It is this concept and this truth claim which forms the catalyst for the investigation in this thesis. The underlying assumptions of this thesis are derived from a governmental framework, based on the work of Foucault (1991). This states that the mentality of government comprises of three main factors, political rationalities, governmental programmes and technologies of government (Rose and Miller, 1992). This thesis argues that positivism can be understood as a political rationality, that legislation can be viewed as a governmental programme and that statistics can be conceptualised as a technology of government. Overall, the results of these three analyses combine to demonstrate the powerful ways in which risk is used to position the maltreated child as a potential delinquent. Consequently, it is established that risk is crucial to the ways in which children and youth find themselves targets of governance.

The overarching goal of the present research was to identify the interface between research and practice in the area of child-abuse investigation. The specific aims of the research were to explore how abused children present to investigators, to identify the characteristics of the children�s disclosures and the role of disclosure in the investigation, to establish the factors that influenced child-abuse investigators� decisions to interview children, and to make comparisons between sexually- and physically-abused children. Three hundred substantiated cases of child abuse (150 sexual-abuse and 150 physical-abuse investigations) investigated by the Department of Child, Youth and Family Services of New Zealand, prior to July 2001, were analysed. Children were most often physically-abused by their biological parents, and mothers were marginally more often the abusers than were fathers. The most common indicators of physical abuse were children�s disclosures and physical injuries. Risk factors for physical abuse included living in two-parent households and being of Maori or Pacific Island ethnicity. Gender or age provided no protection from physical abuse. The families of the physically-abused children were characterised by family violence, substance abuse, neglect, and poor mental health. Adverse family circumstances restrained children from telling others about their physical abuse. Physically-abused children aged more than 7 were found to present with a range of problem behaviours and fears. Child-abuse investigators often tolerated physical assaults on children, particularly by mothers. Moreover, child-abuse investigators did not routinely interview physically-abused children or treat the abuse as a criminal matter, especially if there were complicating family dynamics. Sexually-abused children were usually victimised by unrelated, known males, less often by male relatives, and infrequently by strangers, fathers, or step-fathers. One-third of the sexual abusers were aged less than 17, and over 40% of the young offenders were aged less than 12. As with adult sexual offenders, the child and teenage sexual offenders were predominantly male. Child-abuse investigators usually did not refer the young sexual offenders to the authorities for follow-up. Risk factors for sexual abuse included being female and living with a single parent. Social workers often did not meet with sexually-abused children, but instead usually referred them for a forensic interview. Social workers may not have explored issues related to the sexually-abused children�s behaviour or their families in the manner that they did for the physically-abused children. In both physical- and sexual-abuse cases, social workers were more likely to take action if children had made clear disclosures of abuse. However, despite disclosure being an important factor in decision-making, child-abuse investigators still did not meet with or interview every child, particularly preschool children and physically-abused children. The majority of factors that influenced child-abuse investigators� decisions to interview children were related to practice issues, in sexual-abuse cases, or tolerance of parental violence towards children, in physical-abuse cases. Preschool children, whether physically- or sexually-abused, did not present differently from 5- or 6-year-olds in their behaviour or style of disclosure. However, compared to older children, child-abuse investigators were unlikely to interview preschoolers. To conclude the thesis, I will highlight lessons to be learned from the present study and will make recommendations for child-abuse investigators, any professionals working with children and families, and the government of New Zealand.