Quantum Units Education®

How Is Child Abuse and Neglect Defined in Federal Law?

1. When defining child abuse and neglect, most Federal and State child protection laws primarily refer to cases of harm to a child caused by parents or other caregivers, but they generally do not include harm caused by other people, such as acquaintances or strangers.

What Are the Major Types of Child Abuse and Neglect?

2. Neglect is the failure of a parent, guardian, or other caregiver to provide for a child’s basic needs, and according to the authors it may fall into any of the following categories EXCEPT:

Recognizing Signs of Abuse and Neglect

3. Which of the following is NOT one of the signs from a parent that child abuse or neglect may be occurring?

Chronic Child Neglect

4. Compared to physical abuse, chronic child neglect is less visible and often less sensational, but is more pervasive and tends to be more difficult to resolve.

What is Chronic Neglect?

5. In order to be considered chronic, there must be a failure to meet more than one of the child’s basic needs for healthy development.

6. Exposure to antisocial/criminal behaviors or illicit behaviors by parents and parental failure to prevent/discourage risk taking or criminal behavior are examples of supervisorial neglect.

Chronic Neglect Casework

7. An emphasis on positive attitudes and positive qualities of helpers is imperative with chronic neglect cases, and the most powerful factor in change is:  

Specialized Training

8. Specialized training is essential to optimizing the performance of both workers and supervisors working on chronic neglect cases, and should focus on family engagement, communication, assessment, and child development.

Integrating Approaches Along the Child Welfare Continuum

9. In order to address the chronicity of abuse and neglect, a chronic neglect pathway known as a/an _______________ system can be established to identify families that repeatedly come to the attention of the child welfare agency.

Conclusion: The Importance of Hope

10. Workers who can maintain a positive, forward-thinking attitude and who can instill hope enable families to envision a time when their problems are under control and their children are happy and healthy.

Long-Term Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect

11. Some of the less obvious consequences of child abuse include physical consequences, such as damage to a child’s growing brain, which can cause cognitive delays or emotional difficulties, or psychological problems that later manifest as high-risk behaviors.

Factors Affecting the Consequences of Child Abuse and Neglect

12. Individual outcomes that result from child abuse and neglect vary widely and are affected by a combination of factors, including each of the following EXCEPT:

Poor Physical Health

13. Many adolescents who experienced child maltreatment tend to be poorly nourished and underweight, and one study found that these children had body mass indexes that grew at significantly slower rates compared to children who had not experienced neglect.

Psychological Consequences

14. Parental neglect is associated with attachment issues or affectionate behaviors with unknown/little-known people, ___________________, inappropriate modeling of adult behavior, and aggression.  

Societal Consequences-Trauma-Informed Practice

15. Trauma-informed practice refers to services and programs specifically designed to address and respond to the impact of traumatic stress, and it has become particularly important in the child welfare system, as a majority of these children and families have experienced some form of past trauma.

Child Maltreatment Prevention: Past, Present, and Future

16. The Fourth Federal National Incidence Study on Child Maltreatment showed substantial and significant drops in the rates of sexual abuse, physical abuse, and emotional abuse over the past several years, with the most significant decline occurring in cases of child neglect.

History of Child Abuse Prevention

17. While in the1980s the focus was on the development and dissemination of clinical interventions and strategies to prevent child abuse, by the 1990s, emphasis was placed on establishing a strong foundation of support for every parent and child.

Prevention Today

18. Experts believe that prevention efforts should focus on supporting a child’s social and emotional development, creating more supportive relationships among community residents, and strengthening:

Promising Prevention Strategies

19. Several researchers suggest that broadly targeted prevention efforts have greater success in eliminating risk factors than in strengthening a parent’s or child’s protective factors, particularly for parents or children at highest risk.

Looking Toward the Future

20. One important challenge for the future is to determine how best to intervene with diverse ethnic and cultural groups when targeting populations at risk for maltreatment.