Child Abuse Prevention Program Grant Proposal

Child abuse is when a parent or caregiver, through action or failure to act, causes injury, death, emotional harm or risk of serious harm to a child. According to The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as amended by the CAPTA Reauthorization Act of 2010, at a minimum, child abuse and neglect is defined as, "Any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation"; or "An act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm (Children 's Bureau, 2010)." The law recognizes a child as being any person who is under the age of 18. The law is broken into 2 sections, and each section treats the idea of child maltreatment in different ways. Criminally, those who abuse children are able to be arrested and prosecuted in court. Civil statutes say that people who suspect a child of being abused are mandated to identify and report it.

What is child abuse? From the word “abuse” we can understand that it is some sort of a maltreatment of a child, causing harm and damage both to his physical and psychological well-being. At the Federal level, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) describes child abuse and neglect as: “any recent act or failure to act on the part of a parent or caretaker, which results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse, or exploitation, or an act or failure to act which presents an imminent risk of serious harm.” Child abuse is a very substantial and widely spread problem in U.S. affecting children of any age, gender, race, background or income, with more than 1.8 million investigations done every year and on average, killing more than 5 children every day. The main issue of child abuse is that the abuser is usually someone a child loves or depends on (a parent, sibling, coach, neighbor, etc.), who violates child’s trust putting personal interests first, therefore official numbers of how many children suffer maltreatment might be not accurate enough as remarkable amount of these cases go unreported. Each case of child abuse is unique, with a lot of individual factors involved, nevertheless, we can distinguish some of the common causes, such as poverty, lack of education, depression, mental or physical health

A parent have to be there for their child mentally, physically, educated them, and instruct them of what may be ahead for them in the near future. If the parent is the abuser it can be difficult for the child to learn all of these methods when they are terrified of their parents and when this happening it will be the responsibility of a human service professional to use primary interventions to help with the present abuse as well as preventing any future abuse. The first primary intervention and method that used is setting up an assessment, this will help the Human service professional determine who the individuals are, what they struggle with, their strengths, and weaknesses. Finding out personal information from the parent will help to assists them with change and finding the right program to help them to stop the abuse as well as becoming a better parent. “Primary preventions programs are usually local in nature. They may be developed from a national

The demographic data on children was only used to help them determine the participants who had never had a child in their care hence excluding them from the final sample. The parents who were included in the final sample were then rated based on a number of scales. The Resource Parent Knowledge and Beliefs Survey; captured the parent’s self-reported attitudes and beliefs related to parenting traumatized child. The Trauma-Informed Parenting; measure the attitudes and beliefs about parenting a child that has experienced trauma and the parents’ knowledge about how trauma affects children. The Tolerance of Misbehavior; assessed the parent’s ability to care for a child that exhibited behaviors that commonly occur in traumatized children. Parent Efficacy; measured the parent’s overall confidence in their ability to be successful in their parental

The Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act of 1974 was originally created to protect a target population of children, under the age of 18, from child abuse and neglect; however, over the years this act has been amended and improved to protect a wider population, with many specific subpopulations, over the past 42 years. In the original text of the act, two specific populations are addressed with different goals: reducing the rate of child abuse in children under the age of eighteen, and improving the treatment of children who had been maltreated or neglected (National Low Income Housing Coalition, 2014). It is easy to see that this act and policies within it are aimed at protecting children specifically, yet looking only at the children,

Child abuse is a very sensitive issue that needs to by carefully handled. Child abuse is defined as a no accidental injury or pattern of injures to a child for which there is no reasonable explanation.

Each week Child Protective Services receives more than 50,000 allegations of child abuse. Two-thirds of the allegations have enough evidence to start investigations. The results of these investigations showed 2,450 children are abused everyday (Ianelli, 2006). In 1999, CPS, nearly four, confirmed an estimated 1,401 child abuse and neglect fatalities every day. (Child Abuse Statistics, nd).

Emotional abuse is one of the most common forms of child abuse. When it comes to children emotional abuse includes encouraging children to develop self-destructive behavior, behavior that is threatening or likely to place the child or the child’s loved ones in danger, excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands in which place expectations on a child that a child cannot meet, and ignoring a child’s attempt to interact. Emotional abuse in a child also includes the failure to provide the proper nurturing necessary for a child’s psychological growth and development. Terrorizing is the most common form of emotional abuse recognized in the case files, with nearly 81.1 percent of emotionally abuse children suffering from it. 63 percent of the emotionally abused children have experienced physical abuse and

There is a vast amount of research using the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory in order to assess risk factors for child maltreatment. Although, past research has focused on risk factors of child abuse using the Adult-Adolescent Parenting Inventory and ways to increase protective factors; literature has seemed to have left out Child Protective Service’s involvement as a protective factor for child maltreatment. It is unclear if this gap in the research is due to lack of evidence based research to confirm the hypothesis that Child Protective Service is in fact a protective factor. However, this is why this research is so important to the field of social work, as well as, other helping professions. It is hypothesized that families with a history

Domestic violence effects everybody in a family. Patterns of abuse from one parent to another, between both parents or directed toward a child all have a composite effect of inflicting potentially severe emotional damage upon the child. The research outlined here identifies domestic violence as a serious sociological problem and consequently provides a usable definition of domestic violence for the present study. This is followed by a discussion on the various psychological consequences of exposure to domestic violence for a developing child. This includes acknowledgement of the manner in which this exposure may damage the ability to formulate healthy social relationships later in life as well as a greater proclivity toward behavior problems, learning difficulties, substance abuse and a learned pattern of violent tendencies.

Younger children do not have the ability to express or show their emotions which can cause behavioral problems. Even a child who witness domestic violence between their caregivers is more likely to suffer from emotional consequences from seeing violence. The long-term effects of exposure in young children can have negative effects in their later years. These outcomes have been documented as leasing to behavioral problems that include school dropout, violence, teen pregnancy, substance abuse, eating disorders, and even suicide attempts. In conclusion, when parents engage in any type of dynamic of domestic violence or aggression, their children, can be at an extreme disadvantage when it comes to emotional development. There are a variety of risk factors that can affect a child

These classes often provide necessary social, emotional, or financial support that will aid in coping with the stress and difficulties of having children. In addition, as cited by Pecora, Sanders, Wilson, English, Puckett & Rudlang-Perman (2014), programs need to “influence deeply ingrained caregiver cultural norms or values that may contribute to child maltreatment.” (Rodríguez, et al. 2011) (p. 326).

However, all forms of child abuse carry emotional consequences because the child's psychological and emotional development inevitably suffers from all forms of abuse. An intervention model that would focus on emotional abuse could also focus on preventing other forms of abuse because violent behavior towards children often comes from the same underlying causes, and most risk factors for child maltreatment are associated with caregiver, family, and environmental factors (McDonald, 2007). With this in mind, a possible solution would have to include early detection, but the intervention would most likely focus on factors that cause all types of child abuse. Despite the widespread occurrences of all forms of abuse, emotional neglect or maltreatment are practically impossible to detect while they occur and impair the child's normal development and social integration. Emotional abuse includes includes verbal, mental, and psychological maltreatment of children, and it is frequently overlooked by the community and mental health professionals who do not define emotional abuse as a suitable factor for diagnostic purposes (as cited in Schneider, Baumrind, & Kimerling, 2007). In reality, emotional abuse is frequently used in many families, it occurs in several worldwide cultures, and it carries significant consequences that should not be overlooked.

In today’s society, child abuse is widespread and has an affect on everyone who comes across it. The act of child abuse happens everyday to a variety of kids who are typically younger and scared to tell anyone. All children are born with the right to be able to develop, grow, live and love according to their needs and feelings. For a child 's development they need protection and reassurance from adults who love them and help them acquire the skills to be a successful adult. However, some children are neglected and hurt by adults that they trust. The abuse a child receives makes them feel bad about themselves, and it is much worse when it occurs within a family because it makes them feel unloved and alone causing them to have problems. “Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged. Numerous studies have investigated the psychological sequelae of childhood trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), dissociation, personality disorder, and substance abuse ”(“New Retrospective Measure of Child Abuse and Neglect” by David P. Bernstein). The act of child abuse causes kids to have one or more mental problems. Additionally, since people do not recognize the abuse while it is occurring, it causes these problems to

Emotional abuse can cause serious burdens on society. Emotional abuse has a significant cost in educational and societal failures, crime, and health care costs (Hibbard, Barlow, & MacMillan, 2012) Pediatricians need to be alert and trained in recognizing emotional maltreatment of children. This can be a very difficult task for pediatricians. Learning to interview children when they are developmentally ready is an important skill which can be critical in detecting emotional abuse. Children who have been emotionally abused have higher rates of psychological disorders such as depression, anxiety, suicidal thoughts and behaviors, and aggression. Providers need to be cognizant of risk factors that may indicate a greater risk for emotional abuse. Some of the risk factors were parental psychiatric illness, depression, and substance