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Child abuse in youth organizations rare compared with other settings
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Child abuse, including verbal, physical and sexual abuse, rarely occurred in youth-serving organizations when compared with abuse committed by family members or other adults, according to recent research in JAMA Pediatrics.
“Child abuse in youth-serving organizations has received considerable attention in the wake of extensive news coverage of cases involving teachers, coaches, day care staff, clergy, and scout leaders,” Anne Shattuck, PhD, of the Crimes Against Children Research Center, University of New Hampshire, and colleagues wrote. “This analysis suggests that maltreatment of children and youth in youth-serving organizations is a problem, but not nearly as much as maltreatment in the family.”
In an effort to provide policymakers, parents and clinicians with estimates of children’s exposure to child abuse, the researchers created a sample of 13,052 children aged younger than 17 years, using 3 years of data from the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence. Survey data were reported by parents for children aged younger than 10, while data for older children were self-reported.
Study results showed that the rate of abuse committed by a member of a youth organization within the last year was 0.4% (95%, 0.2-0.7), while the lifetime rate was 0.8% (95%, 0.5-1.1). These rates were relatively rare compared with the abuse rate committed by adult family members within the last year (5.9%; 95% CI, 5.2-6.6) and over the lifetime (11.4%; 95% CI, 10.4-12.4). Rates also were compared with the past year (3.3%; 95% CI, 2.8-3.9) and lifetime rate (5.9%; 95% CI, 5.2-6.6) of abuse committed by any nonfamily adult.
Of lifetime abuse committed by an adult member of a youth organization, 63.2% of victims reported verbal abuse, 34.6% reported physical abuse, 6.4% reported sexual abuse and 0.8% reported neglect. The researchers suggested that greater emphasis should be applied to training members of youth organizations to recognize signs of verbal abuse, such as outbursts of anger and shaming.
“It is important that publicity about cases that come to media attention not give an exaggerated sense of frequency that creates unnecessary anxiety or deters families from making the resources of these organizations available to their children,” Shattuck and colleagues wrote. “It is also important that the statistics on family maltreatment be widely and regularly disseminated so that this reality is not obscured.” – by David Costill
Disclosure: The researchers report no relevant financial disclosures.
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