Child abuse, child protection and disabled children : a review of recent research

This paper reports the results of a scoping study which reviewed research about child abuse, child protection and disabled children published in academic journals between 1996 - 2009. The review was conducted using a five stage method for scoping studies. Several studies have revealed a strong association between disability and child maltreatment, indicating that disabled children are significantly more likely to experience abuse than their non-disabled peers. Those with particular impairments are at increased risk. There is evidence that the interaction of age, gender and/or socio-cultural factors with impairment results in different patterns of abuse to those found among non-disabled children although the reasons for this require further examination. It appears that therapeutic services and criminal justice systems often fail to take account of disabled children's needs and heightened vulnerability. In Britain, little is known about what happens to disabled children who have been abused and how well safeguarding services address their needs. Very few studies have sought disabled children's own accounts of abuse or safeguarding. Considerable development is required, at both policy and practice level, to ensure that disabled children's right to protection is upheld. The paper concludes by identifying a number of aspects of the topic requiring further investigation

Catching the cradle

Review of : When the bough breaks : a mother's story, by J Hollander; 2008. London: John Murray. pp. 256. Price: $AU35.Dominic J Wilkinso

Disability and victimization in a national sample of children and youth.

Abstract Although past research has found higher rates of violence, crime, and abuse among children with disabilities, most studies combine diverse forms of disability into one measure and assess exposure to only one particular type of victimization. Based on a representative national sample of 4,046 children aged 2-17 from the 2008 National Survey of Children\u27s Exposure to Violence, the present study examines the associations between several different types of disability and past-year exposure to multiple forms of child victimization. Results suggest that attention-deficit disorder/attention-deficit with hyperactivity disorder elevates the risk for peer victimization and property crime, internalizing psychological disorders increase risk for both child maltreatment and sexual victimization, and developmental/learning disorders heighten risk only for property crime. In contrast, physical disability did not increase the risk for any type of victimization once confounding factors and co-occurring disabilities were controlled. It appears that disabilities associated with interpersonal and behavioral difficulties are most strongly associated with victimization risks

The Impact of Emotional Abuse on Psychological Distress among Child Protective Services-Involved Adolescents with Borderline-to-Mild Intellectual Disability

DOI 10.1080/19361521.2011.574677Childhood maltreatment is a robust contributing factor to mental health problems in adolescents. The current study examines the impact of childhood emotional abuse on adolescent psychological distress in 48 youths with borderline-to-mild intellectual disability (ID), as compared to 117 peers with average intellectual functioning. Both emotional abuse and intellectual functioning predicted the severity of youth psychological distress. Childhood emotional abuse has an impact on adolescent distress, and maltreated child welfare-involved youth with lower IQ levels may be more vulnerable to distress than youth with average IQ. This raises a question regarding the detection of subtle manifestations of ID and the need to attend to mental health within this sub-population receiving child welfare services.Ontario Mental Health Foundatio