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Abuse, neglect more common among children with developmental delays

A higher risk for abuse and neglect is found among children with developmental disabilities than children developing at a typical rate, according to recent study findings published in Clinical Pediatrics.

“We already know that children with delayed or developmental problems are at 1.7 times greater risk for abuse than children without disabilities,” Debra H. Zand, PhD, associate professor of pediatrics at Saint Louis University, said in a press release. “In this study, we wanted to investigate areas of a parent’s behavior or reaction that might increase this risk.”

Debra H. Zand

Zand and colleagues evaluated 67 mothers (average age, 30.09 years) and their children (average age, 23.04 months) who have disabilities to determine parental behaviors and risk for abuse and neglect.

Language disorder was the most common disability (22%), followed by global developmental delay (15%), neurological disease (13%), gross motor delay (10%), autism (9%), behavior problems (7%), deafness (4%), Down syndrome (3%), cleft palate (3%), cerebral palsy (1%), cytomegalovirus (1%), blindness (1%), muscle tone deficits (1%) and skeletal dysplasia (1%).

Researchers found that participants expected more and empathized less compared with parents of children without disabilities, leading to a higher risk for abuse in those areas.

“We found that parents have higher expectations from their children, which may result asking them to achieve at a much higher standard than they are capable,” Zand said in the release. “We also saw that parents don’t empathize toward their child’s needs as much as parents of typically developing children, which suggests that these parents may not understand the needs or feelings of their children.”

The researchers recommend that parents of children with developmental disabilities consult with pediatricians about appropriate parental behavior and healthy ways of dealing with their children.

“In addition to all this, parents need to find strong social support groups and engage in activities that help them be happy and feel competent,” Zand said.

Disclosure: The study was funded in part by Missouri’s Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.