Family
Advocacy
Research
Digests

RESEARCH REVIEWCURRENT RESEARCH FOR FAMILY ADVOCACY PROGRAMS • VOL. 4, NO. 1 SUMMER 2019
In this Issue

We present Research Review (RR), a publication of the Joining Forces Joining Families (JFJF) group.
RR consists of summaries of research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and child maltreatmentthat is of interest to family advocacy, medical, and social service providers. Articles on IPV include
the lack of adequate food in a household can be associated with IPV, social media and descriptions of
how IPV is experienced, and how one parent may attempt to alienate a child from the other parent.
Summaries of child maltreatment research describe child shame from physical and sexual abuse, thepossible relationship between suicidal feelings and social connections, the importance of parental
supervision to prevent child neglect, and the association between children’s report care release dateand corporal punishment.
IN T I MATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Prevalence and Implications of One Parent Alienatinga Child from the other Parent“Parental alienating behavior” is hostile, instrumental
aggression by one parental figure intended to harm therelationship between a child and the other parent (Harman,
Kruk, & Hines, 2018). The actions by the parent who is trying
to disrupt the relationship — the alienating parent (AP) — inreference to the targeted parent (TP) can include a variety
of abusive behaviors such as aggression, coercive control,
threats of violence, exploitation of a victim’s vulnerability,
exploitation of perpetrator’s vulnerability, and manipulation of the victim by psychological means to question theirown sanity. Behaviors by the AP toward a child can often be
psychologically abusive such as making the child feel guilty
for expressing loyalty or warmth toward the TP, and otheractions intended to cause the child to reject the TP. Childneglect can occur when the AP’s needs are placed above
those of the child such as keeping the child away from the TP

and from other family members. Parents undergoing childcustody disputes may employ alienating behaviors in thehopes of bolstering their custody case, but intact families are
not immune to parental alienation.
Establishing the prevalence of parental alienation is difficult as most of these behaviors are hidden. Harman, LederElder, and Biringen (2016) conducted the first parental
alienation poll among U.S. adults residing in North Carolina.
The study consisted of a probability sample of 608 adults,
18 years of age or older, contacted by random digit dialing.
Participants were asked if they had ever heard of the term“parental alienation” and then provided with its definition.
They were then asked if they had heard of parental alienating
behaviors occurring to someone they knew and how many

Contents

Friday Release of Children’s Report Cards Can Increase
the Risk of Physical Abuse……………………………………5
Shame Resulting from Child Physical or Sexual Abuse ………5
Suicidal Because “I Don’t Feel Connected” or Not
Connected Because “I Feel Suicidal”?…………………………6
Preventing Child Neglect Requires Greater Attention
to Child Supervision……………………………………………7

Prevalence and Implications of One Parent Alienatinga Child from the other Parent…………………………………1
Household Food Insufficiency is Associated with
Family Violence………………………………………………2
Descriptions of the Lived Experience of Intimate Partner
Violence Though Social Media…………………………………3

Continued on page 4

IN T I MATE PARTNER VIOLENCEHousehold Food Insufficiency is Associated with Family Violence
Food insufficiency — lack of adequate food for a family’s needs — is associated with increased rates of physicalviolence in households. While the great majority of households have been found to be food sufficient, a significant
minority experience mild or moderate-to-severe foodinsufficiency. The 2017 annual survey of food access andadequacy in households by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (n=37,389) found that 88.2% of American households
were food-secure, meaning that they had access at all times
to enough food for an active, healthy life for all household
members (Coleman-Jensen, Rabbitt, Gregory, & Singh,2018). Food insecurity, meaning that their eating patterns
were disrupted because the household lacked money for
obtaining food, was found in 11.8% of households including
4.5% with very low food security. Of families with children,
married, two-parent families had the lowest percentage offood insecurity (8.1%) and single mother households had thehighest (22.1%).
Children in food insufficient homes have numerous
health and behavioral problems. For example, they are twice
as likely to report being in fair or poor health and were atleast 1.4 times as likely to have asthma (Gunderson & Craig,2015). The National Survey of Children’s Health (NSCH)
surveys a cross-section of U.S. children from infancy
through age 17 (https://mchb.hrsa.gov/data/national-surveys). It includes items on household food access, child andfamily mental and physical health, and family violence. A
high percentage (74.3%) of families in the NCHS survey had
food sufficient homes, 21.3% lived in mild food insufficiency,
and 4.4% reported experiencing moderate-to-severe foodinsufficiency.
The 2016 NSCH compared the outcomes of children infood sufficient homes to those in food insufficient homes(Jackson, Johnson, & Vaughn, 2019). Slightly over 8% ofchildren lived with a mentally ill or suicidal person, and injust under 9%, a drug or alcohol problem was reported. A
total of 4.7% of the entire sample reported physical violence
between parents or adults in the home. The odds of children
witnessing physical violence in the home were 54% greaterin mildly food insufficient households, but 166% greater inmoderate-to-severe food insufficient households in compariContinued on page 4

The odds of children witnessing physical violence in the home were 54% greater in mildly foodinsufficient households, but 166% greater in moderate-to-severe food insufficient households.

JOINING FORCES
Joining Families

RESEARCH REVIEW
Editor-in-Chief
James E. McCarroll, PhD
e-mail to James.McCarroll.ctr@usuhs.mil(301) 377-9479
Joining Forces Joining Families—
Research Review is a publication of the
Family Violence and Trauma Project,
Center for the Study of TraumaticStress, Department of Psychiatry,
Uniformed Services University,
Bethesda, Maryland 20814, and the
U.S. Army Installation Management
Command, Fort Sam Houston, TX
78234.

2 • RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families

Editorial Consultant
Joshua C. Morganstein, MD
Captain, US Public Health Service
Assistant Director, CSTS
Associate Professor and Assistant Chair
Department of Psychiatry, USU
EditorRonald J. Whalen, PhD, LMSW
Research Social Worker, CSTS
Research Assistant Professor
Department of Psychiatry, USU
Assistants to the Editors
Alexandra Burris, BA
Britany Mullins-Husain, BA

Summer 2019

IN T I MATE PARTNER VIOLENCE

Descriptions of the Lived Experience of Intimate Partner
Violence Though Social MediaThe use of social media is a part of daily life for many
people. Major uses include communication and obtaining
information, but such media can also be used for research.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a topic about which Twitter users have extensively communicated. A qualitative studyof 3,086 worldwide users, randomly selected from 61,725
English speaking tweets, of the hashtag #WhyILeft resulted
in analysis of thematic content to elucidate the experienceof IPV victims (Storer, Rodriguez, &Franklin, 2018). In thisqualitative study, thematic content analysis was used to explore the barriers that tweeters faced in leaving their abusive
partners. The analysis revealed seven primary themes that
influenced their decision-making process:a. The impact of IPV on their well-being,b. Lack of awareness that their abuser’s behavior was
abusive,c. Not wanting to be identified as abuse victims,
d. Internalizing implicit or explicit messages that theyshould work through their challenges,
e. Structural constraints over which the victim has little orno control, andf. Separating is complex and takes time.
This research emphasized the personal and institutional
challenges that victims face in leaving abusive relationships. These challenges were described as a process, rather
than a point-in-time. The authors suggested that this type of
information is helpful to counselors in that it goes beyond a
victim’s decision-making processes and illustrates the many
interlocking and cumulative impacts of the themes described.
There are many challenges for research in social media.
Some unique advantages of this line of research include accessing victims’ voices describing their experiences, reaching communities that are not commonly studied, better

understanding of mechanisms that influence decisions, andmaking meaning of experience. However, there are many
disadvantages that must be considered such as having asample in which the population is unknown and beyond
which generalization is impossible. There is no individual
unit of analysis, demographics cannot be described, messages
may be unclear when emoticons are used instead of words,
and there are ethical concerns such as how to protect privacy,
and lack of informed consent (Storer, Rodriguez, & Franklin,
2018). Such studies may best be considered pilot studies to
identify areas for more systematic research.
Keeping up with emerging technologies that influence individuals is a challenge for clinicians and policy-makers. Media portrayal of societal issues from social media is rampant
in journalism and may be a source of misinformation that
could influence clients. Social media may represent a portionof a population that is less or least likely to ever present toclinicians. However, clinicians could inquire of the clients ifthey access social media concerning the issues bringing themto seek care. Social media may be an alternate form of help
seeking that, in no small manner, serves as a replacement forestablished helping services, such as healthcare and family
welfare. It is also a vehicle that clinicians can use to explore
the content of users’ communications. Clinical inquiry of theeffects of social media on clients is a topic that requires much
more research and public discussion about its influence andhow to use such information to help clients.

ReferenceStorer HL, Rodriguez M, &Franklin R. (2018). “Leaving was
a process, not an event”: The lived experience of dating
and domestic violence in 140 characters. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. doi: 10.1177/0886260518816325

Analysis of the content of social media can inform clinicians of issues discussed byusers and can contribute to better understanding of that which they face.

http://www.CSTSonline.org

RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families • 3

Prevalence and Implications of One Parent, from page 1such people they knew. If participants had a child, they wereasked if they had felt alienated from their child by the otherparent. Finally, if they had experienced parental alienation,
they were asked to rate its subjective severity (mild, moderate, or severe).
In response to the first question, 58.6% of the entire
sample reported “Yes”, they had heard of parental alienation
and 68.7% reported knowing someone who was being alienated from their children. Over 13% of participants who werea parent or guardian to a child reported they had been alienated from one or more children by the other parent. Nearly
half (48%) of the alienated parents reported the subjective
severity of alienation as severe, 31% as moderate, and 13%
as mild. Fathers and mothers did not differ in their perceptions of being targeted for parental alienation. Similarly, nodifferences were detected across age, race, or education level.
Parents who were currently married reported significantly
higher rates of alienation.

Parental alienation can occur in in both intact andseparated families. These findings indicate the need to raise
professional as well as public awareness of the prevalence andlong-term consequences of parental alienation to children
and targeted parents. It is important for clinicians as well asothers in legal systems, including advocates, to be aware of
the possibility of parental alienation when providing services
to distraught families in which separation or divorce might
be an outcome. Research will be required to understandthe nature of parental alienation and to develop treatment
strategies for the targeted parent, the child, and the alienating
parent.

References

Harman JJ, Kruk E, & Hines DA. (2018). Parental alienating
behaviors: An unacknowledged form of family violence.
Psychological Bulletin, 144(12), 1275-1299.
Harman JJ, Leder-Elder S, & Biringen Z. (2016). Prevalenceof parental alienation drawn from a representative poll.
Children and Youth Services Review, 66, 62-66.

Parental alienation is hostile, instrumental aggression by one parental figure intended to harm
the relationship between a child and another parental figure. It can be considered a form of
intimate partner violence as well as child maltreatment.

Household Food Insufficiency, from page 2
son to non-food insufficient households. While mental healthand substance abuse partially mediated these associations,the odds of children witnessing physical violence were evenmore pronounced in homes with moderate-to-severe foodinsufficiency in the absence of mental health and substanceabuse. Mental illness in the home was associated with a 34%
increase in physical violence when there was moderate-tosevere food insufficiency. However, in the absence of mental
illness moderate-to-severe food insufficiency was associatedwith a significantly higher percentage (180%) in the odds ofwitnessing family violence. Similarly, with drug or alcohol involvement in the household and moderate food insufficiency,
there was a 31% increase; without drug or alcohol involvement, the percentage increase was 217%.
The question remains is food insufficiency in itself therisk factor- or perhaps more likely that food insufficient is anindicator of a family with multiple stressors in terms of financial abilities and parental time availability. The authors suggested that policies that aim to reduce food insufficiency may
have important collateral benefits in reducing family violencein households that otherwise appear to be of low risk for such
violence. The authors proposed that food insufficiency should
be considered a trauma due to its burdensome and psycho-

4 • RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families

logically taxing demands and that insufficiency may also be adestabilizing factor in households already at risk for physicalviolence. Reducing food insufficiency can be an importantcomponent of prevention of family violence as well as that oftreatment programs. Family advocacy could include assessments of food insufficiency in home visiting programs as wellas in work with families in which intimate partner violence
has occurred.

References

Coleman-Jensen A, Rabbitt, MP, Gregory CA, & Singh A.
(2018). Household Food Security in the United States in
2017, ERR-256, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic
Research Service, September 2018.
Gundersen C, & Ziliak JP. (2015). Food insecurity and healthoutcomes. Health Affairs; 34(11): 1830-1839.
Jackson DB, Johnson KR, & Vaughn MG. (2019). Household
food insufficiency and children witnessing physical violence in the home: Do family mental illness and substancemisuse moderate the association? Maternal and Child
Health Journal. doi:10.1007/s10995-018-02725-w

Summer 2019

CHILD MALTREATMENT

Friday Release of Children’s Report Cards Can Increase
the Risk of Physical Abuse
Spanking and other forms of corporal punishment areimportant risk factors for child physical abuse. Spanking cancross the line and become physical abuse. Despite parents’
trend to decrease their reliance on physical discipline parenting strategies (Ryan, Kalil, Ziol-Guest, & Padilla, 2016), amajority of parents worldwide with school-aged children under 10 still report using corporal punishment (Straus, 2010).
An understanding of when parents are more likely to use
excessive physical discipline with their school-aged children
has important child physical abuse detection and prevention
implications.
Using calls to a state child abuse hotline and elementary public school report card release dates for the 2015-16
academic year in Florida, Bright et al. (2018) examinedcounty-level incident rates of verified physical abuse occurring at three different time intervals: (1) report card releaseday, (2) the day immediately following report card release(post-release day), and (3) all other days of the week (nonrelease days). After adjusting rates for county-level variables(e.g., child population, median household income) and daily
variation in physical abuse rates, the study found that theincidence of child physical abuse increased by 3.75 times on
post-release day when report cards were released on a Friday.
The study highlights the need to think of “risk times” aswell as who is at risk. Clinical implications of these findings
include the need for increased vigilance among mandated
reporters of child maltreatment (e.g., teachers, social service
worker, pediatricians) in the days following report card release. Public policy implications include moving report card
release to dates earlier in the week, as well as parent education about their needs to manage their concerns about reportcards, the times they may feel most stressed and the ineffectiveness of physical discipline.

References

Bright M, Lynne S, Masyn K, Waldman M., Graber J, & Alexander R. (2018). Association of Friday school report card
release with Saturday incidence rates of agency-verified
physical child abuse. JAMA Pediatrics. doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.4346
Ryan RM, Kalil A, Ziol-Guest KM, & Padilla C. (2016).
Socioeconomic gaps in parents’ discipline strategies from1988 to 2011. Pediatrics; 138(6): 1-10.
Straus MA. (2010, Spring). Prevalence, societal causes, andtrends in corporal punishment by parents in world perspective. Law and Contemporary Problems; 73: 1-30.

Some children who receive poor report cards are punished by their caregivers, whichsometimes crosses the line into physical abuse. Schools could be encouraged to movereport card release dates to early in the week rather than on a Friday.
C HILD MALTREATMENT

Shame Resulting from Child Physical or Sexual Abuse
Child physical abuse (PA) and sexual abuse (SA) areassociated with shame (Ellenbogen, Collin-Vezina, Sinha,
Chabot, & Wells, 2018). Self-report data were collected onchildren receiving protective services for PA and/or SA. Measures of abuse-related shame, trauma symptoms, substanceabuse, and gambling problems were completed by 123 participants. Shame was assessed via the Shame Questionnaire(Fiering, Taska, & Lewis, 1998; 2002), a three-item measureusing a three-point scale, from 0 (“Not true”) to 2 (“Verytrue”). The three items were: “When I think about what
happened, I want to run away by myself and hide.” “I feelashamed because I think that people can tell from looking at
http://www.CSTSonline.org

me what happened.” And “What happened to me makes me
feel bad, dirty, or like a ‘loser.’”
Abuse was measured with the Childhood Experiencesof Violence Questionnaire (CEVQ) (Walsh, MacMillan,
Trocme, Jamieson, & Boyle, 2008), which contains 18 items
to assess multiple victimizations of youth with special attention on exposure to physical abuse and sexual abuse. Trauma
symptoms were measured with the Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children (TSCC) (Briere, 1996), a 54-item assessmentof symptoms of posttraumatic stress, dissociation and sexual
concerns. Mental health symptoms were measured with theBrief Symptom Inventory (BSI), a 53-item assessment ofContinued on page 6
RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families • 5

Shame Resulting from Child Physical or Sexual Abuse, from p. 5
symptoms with nine subscales (Derogotis, 1994).
Approximately 50% of both PA and SA victims did notreport shame, but approximately 15% of both types of victims reported at least one measure of shame. When the overlap between PA and SA was compared, 93% of SA victims
also reported PA whereas 53% of PA victims reported SA. Six
percent of SA victims and 2% of PA victims reported all three
items at the “Very true” level. Other responses were between
these levels.
The authors reported that the mental health portraits of
the PA and SA victims were similarly distressing: both PA
shame and SA shame were associated with all subscales of
the TSCC and the BSI as well as measures of low self-esteem
and suicidal ideation. The authors suggested that abuserelated shame is a pathway to a variety of forms of mental
health distress, but further research is needed to understandthe causal chain in order to arrive at these outcomes. For
example, SA may involve more mental health difficulties thanPA due to its taboos of stigma and secrecy, but also due to thehigh degree of overlap with PA, further increasing victimization when compared with PA alone. Overall, adolescents
who feel shame due to poly-victimization face greater mental
health problems.
Clinical implications of these findings include assessing
shame as a part of assessing PA and SA experiences. Also
to note that due to the secrecy associated with feelings ofshame, abuse victims may incline toward social withdrawal
and negative self-appraisal resulting in negative self-esteem.
The authors suggested developing practice guidelines to seekout PA/SA victims through standard questionnaires used in
evaluations and assessments. In addition, cognitive therapies
could address shame feelings and self-denigrating ruminations to avoid or treat mental health issues.

References

Briere (1996). Trauma Symptom Checklist for Children(TSCC) Professional Manual. Odessa, FL: Psychological
Assessment Resources.
Derogotis LR. (1994). Brief Symptom Inventory: Administration, Scoring, and Procedures manual. Minneapolis, MV:
National Computer Systems.
Ellenbogen S, Collin-Vezina D, Sinha V, Chabot M, & Wells
SJR. (2018). Contrasting mental health correlates of physical and sexual abuse-related shame. Journal of Child andAdolescent Mental Health; 30(2): 87-97.
Fiering C, Taska L, & Lewis M. (1998). The role of shame andattributional style in children’s and adolescents’ adaptation
to sexual abuse. Child Maltreatment; 3(2): 129-142.
Fiering C, Taska L, & Lewis M. (2002). Adjustment following
sexual abuse discovery: The role of shame and attributional style. Developmental Psychology; 38(1): 79-92.
Walsh CA, MacMillan HL, Trocme N, Jamieson E, & Boyle
MH. (2008). Measurement of victimization in adolescence: Development and validation of the Childhood
Experiences of Violence Questionnaire. Child Abuse &Neglect; 32(11): 1037-1057.

Shame, as a result of physical abuse and/or sexual abuse, can be associated with mental
health problems. Victims may incline toward social withdrawal and negative self-appraisal
rather than seek mental health services.
C HILD MALTREATMENT

Suicidal Because “I Don’t Feel Connected” or
Not Connected Because “I Feel Suicidal”?
Understanding the links between social connections andsuicidal ideation has implications for the prevention of suicidal behavior. Adolescents involved with child welfare (CW)
have a higher risk of suicide, depression, substance abuse,and trauma than those not involved with CW (Fulginiti, He,& Negriff, 2018). Suicide is the second leading cause of deathamong U.S. youth 10 to 24 years old (Heron, 2018). Among
youth living in families investigated by CW, 27% endorse
suicidal ideation (Anderson, 2011). Given that more than
3.5 million U.S. children received a child protective services
6 • RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families

investigation in 2017 (Children’s Bureau, 2019), there is a
public health imperative to develop evidence-informed interventions which may mitigate suicide among this high-risk
population. CW involvement can bring a host of changes
in social connectedness, particularly when the subject isremoved from the home and placed in foster care or anotherarrangement and separated from a stable family. Among thesignificant social changes are the potential loss of friends andsupportive family members, different caregivers, and school
connections.
Continued on page 7
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Suicidal Because, from p. 6
The relationship between social connectedness andsuicidal ideation was examined in a study of 995 youth, ages
11–17, who participated in the National Survey of Child andAdolescent Well-Being, a nationally representative sample ofchildren and families investigated by a CW agency during theperiod 2008–2011 (Fulginiti, He, & Negriff, 2018). They explored the possibility of a bi-directional association betweensocial connectedness and suicidal ideation using a longitudinal approach (base-line and an 18-month follow-up) to
examine the association between (1) social connectedness(caregiver, peer, school) at Time 1 (T1) and suicidal ideation
at Time 2 (T2), and (2) suicidal ideation at T1 and social
connectedness at T2. Control variables included socio-demographics (sex, age and ethnicity), out-of-home placement
status, clinical levels of mental health symptoms for depression or post-traumatic stress, and substance abuse disorders.
Suicidal ideation at T1 was significantly associated withpeer connectedness and caregiver connectedness at T2, but
not school connectedness. Thus, suicidal ideation appears
to precede social withdrawal and suicidal ideation, whereas
the opposite was not true — T1 social connectedness did notpredict T2 suicidal ideation.
The authors described the results of their study as challenging the assumption that loss of social connectedness
precedes suicidal ideation, but not the reverse. Potential
explanations suggested for this relationship were stigma, internalization of negative attitudes toward the self after having
suicidal thoughts, and burdens upon social networks leading
to relationship strains and social distancing.

Implications of these findings include the need for universal screening of CW-involved youth for suicidal ideation.
Awareness of the association between suicidal ideation andsubsequent social withdrawal suggests the need for clinicalinterventions focused on helping CW-involved youth engage
with their social support systems. The authors suggested thatchild welfare workers who work with suicidal youth and areconcerned about suicidal behavior should also be concerned
about social connectedness after a suicidal crisis. Further
clinical actions that can help improve connectedness are
relationship-building skills with peers and caregivers, butalso suicide-related stigma reduction strategies.

References

Anderson HD. (2011). Suicide ideation, depressive symptoms, and out-of-home placement among youth in the
U.S. Child Welfare System. Journal of Clinical Child &Adolescent Psychology, 40(6), 790-796.
Children’s Bureau. (2019). Child Maltreatment 2017. Washington, DC.
Fulginiti A, He AS, & Negriff S. (2018). Suicidal because I
don’t feel connected or vice versa? A longitudinal study ofsuicidal ideation and connectedness among child welfare
youth. Child Abuse & Neglect, 86, 278-289.
Heron M. (2018). Deaths: Leading Causes for 2016. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health & Human Services,Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National
Center for Health Statistics.

Screening for suicidal ideation is important for managing immediate risk, but suchideation also foreshadows disconnectedness from primary caregivers and peers.
C HILD MALTREATMENT

Preventing Child Neglect Requires Greater Attention
to Child SupervisionChild neglect (CN) is the most common form of childmaltreatment. In the latest U.S. national counts, 74.9% of all
victims were neglected (Children’s Bureau, 2019). CN can bethought of as the failure of a parent, guardian, or caretaker toprovide for a child’s basic physical, emotional, training, andsupervisory needs due to abnormal parental behavior (Williams, 2017).
Samples from the National Surveys of Children’s Exposure to Violence (NatSCEV), were used to estimate theprevalence of neglected children (Vanderminden et al.,2019). The NatSCEV, funded by the Office of Juvenile Justiceand Delinquency Prevention and the Centers for Disease
http://www.CSTSonline.org

Control and Protection, is the primary surveillance system
for tracking youth victimization in the United States. The
survey measures the past-year and lifetime exposure toviolence, including maltreatment, for children ages 17 andyounger. A representative sample was obtained through random digit dialing of telephone numbers in the United Statesfrom August 28, 2013, to April 30, 2014. Data were obtained
on 7,852 children and youth regarding physical and supervisory neglect. Supervisory neglect included three subtypes:
parental incapacitation, parental absence, and inappropriate
caregiver in the home.
Continued on page 8
RESEARCH REVIEW | Joining Forces/Joining Families • 7

Preventing Child Neglect, from p. 7
The NatSCEV found that more than 1 in 7 (15.1%) U.S.
children experienced some form of neglect in their lifetime;
more than 1 in 17 (6.1%) experienced neglect in the previous
year. The most common types of neglect were supervisory(due to parental incapacitation) and neglect due to parental
absence. A two-parent family was the single biggest protective factor against neglect with the exception of families inwhich there was violence and conflict. Neglect, especiallysupervisory neglect due to parental addiction and poor
monitoring, was present in all socioeconomic categories andoccurs in the U.S. military services (Cozza, et al., 2015).
Authors of this study urge that greater attention be given
to the impact of supervisory neglect from poor parental
monitoring as such inattention or negligence are associatedwith negative health and behavioral consequences. Lifetime rates of youth 14-17 years old who report supervisory
neglect due to parental absence (10.3%) may be of particular interest to military communities experiencing frequent
deployments and/or military families experiencing frequentmoves. Given that most states permit youth in this age range
to go unsupervised for extended periods (hours, not days),these findings reinforce the need for parents to better match
their supervision preferences with the unique needs of theirchildren.

References

Children’s Bureau, Administration on Children, Youth andFamilies, Administration for Children and Families of the
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. (2019).
Child Maltreatment 2017 (pp. 261). Washington, DC.
Cozza SC, Ortiz CD, Fullerton CS, McCarroll JE, Holmes
AK, Harris AM, Wryter CL, & Ursano RJ. (2015). Types,
subtypes, and severity of substantiated child neglect in
U.S. Army communities. Military Medicine, 180(11) 11471153.
Vanderminden J, Hamby S, David-Ferdon ., Kacha-OchanaA, Merrick M, Simon TR, . . . Turner H. (2019). Rates ofneglect in a national sample: Child and family characteristics and psychological impact. Child Abuse & Neglect; 88:
256-265.
Williams SE. (2017) Redrawing the line: An exploration of
how lay people construct child neglect. Child Abuse &Neglect; 68: 11-24.

Child neglect involves the failure of a parent, guardian, or caretaker to provide for a child’s basic
physical, emotional, training, and supervisory needs due to abnormal parental behavior.

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Summer 2019