Checking Children Maltreatment

Nearly three in four children or 300 million children aged two to four years regularly suffer physical punishment or psychological violence at the hands of parents and caregivers.
One in five women and 1 in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child aged 0 to 17 years.
Subsequently, 120 million girls and young women under 20 years of age have suffered some form of forced sexual contact.
Some consequences of child maltreatment include impaired lifelong physical and mental health, and the social and occupational outcomes can ultimately slow a country’s economic and social development.
Child maltreatment is often hidden. Only a fraction of child victims of maltreatment ever gets support from health professionals.
A child who is abused is more likely to abuse others as an adult so that violence is passed down from one generation to the next. It is therefore critical to break this cycle of violence, and in so doing create positive multi-generational impacts.
Preventing child maltreatment before it starts is possible and requires a multisectoral approach.
Effective prevention approaches include supporting parents and teaching positive parenting skills, and enhancing laws to prohibit violent punishment.
Ongoing care of children and families can reduce the risk of maltreatment recurring and can minimise its consequences.
Child maltreatment is the abuse and neglect that occurs to children under 18 years of age. It includes all types of physical or emotional ill-treatment, sexual abuse, neglect, negligence and commercial or other exploitation, which result in actual or potential harm to the child’s health, survival, development or dignity in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.
Child maltreatment is a global problem with serious life-long consequences. In spite of recent national surveys in several low and middle-income countries, data from many countries are still lacking.
Child maltreatment is complex and difficult to study. Current estimates vary widely depending on the country and the method of research used.
International studies reveal that nearly three in four children aged 2-4 years regularly suffer physical punishment or psychological violence at the hands of parents and caregivers, and one in five women and 1 in 13 men report having been sexually abused as a child.
Every year, there are an estimated 40 150 homicide deaths in children under 18 years of age, some of which are likely due to child maltreatment. This number almost certainly underestimates the true extent of the problem, since a significant proportion of deaths due to child maltreatment are incorrectly attributed to falls, burns, drowning and other causes.
In armed conflict and refugee settings, girls are particularly vulnerable to sexual violence, exploitation and abuse by combatants, security forces, members of their communities, aid workers and others.
Child maltreatment has often severe short and long-term physical, sexual and mental health consequences. These include injuries, including head injuries and severe disability, in particular in young children; post-traumatic stress, anxiety, depression, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV. Adolescent girls may face additional health issues, including gynaecological disorders and unwanted pregnancy. Child maltreatment can affect cognitive and academic performance and is strongly associated with alcohol and drug abuse and smoking – key risk factors for noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular diseases and cancer.
Maltreatment causes stress that is associated with disruption in early brain development. Extreme stress can impair the development of the nervous and immune systems. Consequently, as adults, maltreated children are at increased risk for behavioural, physical and mental health problems such as: perpetrating or being a victim of violence, depression, smoking, obesity, high-risk sexual behaviours, unintended pregnancy, alcohol and drug misuse.
Violence against children is also a contributor to inequalities in education. Children who experienced any form of violence in childhood have a 13 percent greater likelihood of not graduating from school.
Beyond the health, social and educational consequences of child maltreatment, there is an economic impact, including costs of hospitalisation, mental health treatment, child welfare, and longer-term health costs.
It is important to emphasise that children are the victims and are never to blame for maltreatment. Characteristics of an individual child that may increase the likelihood of being maltreated include: being either under four years old or an adolescent being unwanted, or failing to fulfil the expectations of parents by having special needs, crying persistently or having abnormal physical features having an intellectual disability or neurological disorder identifying as or being identified as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.
Characteristics of a parent or caregiver that may increase the risk of child maltreatment include: difficulty bonding with a newborn and not nurturing the child having been maltreated themselves as a child lacking awareness of child development or having unrealistic expectations misusing alcohol or drugs, including during pregnancy, having low self-esteem, suffering from poor impulse control, having a mental or neurological disorder, being involved in criminal activity and experiencing financial difficulties.
The relationships within families or among intimate partners, friends and peers that may increase the risk of child maltreatment include: family breakdown or violence between other family members being isolated in the community or lacking a support network  or a breakdown of support in child rearing from the extended family.
Also, communities and societies may increase the risk of child maltreatment through gender and social inequality; lack of adequate housing or services to support families and institutions;high levels of unemployment or poverty; the easy availability of alcohol and drugs; inadequate policies and programmes to prevent child maltreatment, child pornography, child prostitution and child labour; social and cultural norms that promote or glorify violence towards others, support the use of corporal punishment, demand rigid gender roles, or diminish the status of the child in parent–child relationships; social, economic, health and education policies that lead to poor living standards, or to socioeconomic inequality or instability.
Effective and promising interventions include parent and caregiver support: Information and skill-building sessions to support the development of nurturing, non-violent parenting delivered by nurses, social workers, or trained lay workers through a series of home visits or in a community setting.Also,using education and life skills approaches through children is very important.
Programmes to prevent sexual abuse that build awareness and teach skills to help children and adolescents understand consent, avoid and prevent sexual abuse and exploitation, and to seek help and support is also necessary.
Interventions to build a positive school climate and violence-free environment, and strengthening relationships between students, teachers, and administrators are apt.
However,to maximise the effects of prevention and care, World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that interventions are delivered as part of a four-step public health approach: defining the problem; identifying causes and risk factors; then, designing and testing interventions aimed at minimising the risk factors; disseminating information about the effectiveness of interventions and increasing the scale of proven effective interventions.
Meanwhile,WHO, in collaboration with partners provides guidance for evidence-based child maltreatment prevention  strategies to end violence against children.
Provides evidence-based guidance to help frontline healthcare providers recognise children who have suffered from violence and neglect and provide evidence-based first line support.
For increased international support and investment in evidence-based child maltreatment prevention, they advocate and provide technical support for evidence-based child maltreatment prevention programmes in several low and middle-income countries.
Culled from WHO International