Psychological Neglect
Parents fail to meet the emotional needs of their children
- Parents who ignore their children
- Fail to make emotional contact
*Less well covered in statutes
Psychological Abuse
Parents engage in behaviors that actively harm a child's mental health
- Calling child names
- Threatens life
Parent Child Relational Problem
*Closest diagnostic code to psychological maltreatment
- Clinical intervention is geared toward the relationship between the parent and the child and that interaction is characterized by a pattern of behavior that impairs the child or family
Problems with Definitions of Psychological Maltreatment
*Very short history
- Not all psychologists believe in using psychological and emotional as synonyms
- Should definition be based on child outcomes or parental behavior
- Not a precise understanding of the meaning of "psychological" (physical vs. psycholo
APSAC Definition of Psychological Maltreatment
A repeated pattern of caregiver behavior or extreme incidents that convey to children they are worthless, flawed, unloved, unwanted, endangered, or only of value in meeting others needs
1) Spurning (verbal and non verbal behaviors that are hostile and rej
Problems with APSAC definition
- Framework does not have theoretical basis and there is overlap among subtypes
- Some subtypes are not cohesive
Glaser Definition of Psychological Maltreatment
Child's needs must be recognized and respected by those who care for them
1) Emotional unavailability, unresponsiveness, and neglect
2) Negative attributions and misattributions to child (how behavior of child is interpreted)
3) Developmentally inappropri
Percentages of Maltreatment
- 7.1% of all reports of maltreatment dealt with emotional maltreatment
- Pennsylvania had lowest, Connecticut was highest
*Variation could be due to differences in legal definitions
*Neglect had largest variation in reporting among states
General Consequences of Maltreatment
1) Maslow- Not reaching self-actualization
2) Erikson- Inability to face conflict
3) Lack of secure attachment in relationships
*Five areas of concern:
1) Interpersonal thoughts, feelings, and behavior: low self-esteem, negative life reviews, suffer from
Failure to thrive
Child failing to grow as expected when there is no known organic disease
Overlap with other forms of Maltreatment
*Families with physical abuse, 91% also guilty of psychological maltreatment (not as strong the other way-45%)
*Psychological maltreatment occurs often without abuse
Perpetrators of Sexual Abuse
*Only 10-30% are strangers
*10.4% are close family members
- Step parents are ten times more likely to offend than neutral parents
- 1/2 of cases involving females is from a family member
- 1/10 of male victims are abuse by family members (much lower)
- 4
Victims of Sexual Abuse
- More likely to be females (1.8 to 3.4 times higher than males)
- Peak age of vulnerability is from 7 to 13
- Rates increase, level out, decrease around 14, and then increase again around 17
- Lack of parental supervision and parental involvement increas
Symptoms of Sexual Abuse
1) Depression
2) Self-destructive thinking and behavior: suicidal ideation, self-mutilation
3) Anxiety: hypervigilance (sees the world as a dangerous place), issues with control
4) PTSD: higher in sexually abused children than other forms of maltreatment,
Repressed memories of sexual abuse
*Ethically impossible to test
- PhD's were less likely to believe in repressed memories
- Leading questions can lead to imagines stories
- So called repressed memories are odd because they are filled with detail and vivid
- Many patients get worse after r
Psychological Maltreatment Laws
- Children can testify to an event even if what they said was not supported or confirmed by anyone else
- Trend is moving away from age requirements in order to testify
- Federal Rule of Evidence 601: All witness presumed competent and it is up to jury to
McMartin Case
- Children pressured and coerced into lying
- Reinforced for "bravery"
- Questioned repeatedly
- Not a medical doctor that they used
- Poor interviewing techniques
- Media attention increased public awareness of childhood sexual abuse
- Prompted researche
Conditions related to accurate testimony
- Best if child tells without being prompted
- Minimal delay between incident and telling someone
- Open-ended, unbiased questions: cannot be answered with a single word, avoid using names or places
- Very young children are very suggestible to adults
- O
Repeated Questions
- Children interviewed around 11 times
- Gave false, elaborate, rich details of stories that happened to them in study; seemed to believe them
Anatomically Correct Dolls
- 92% use in their interviews
- Vaginal, anal, and oral openings; adult dolls have underarm and pubic hair
- Dolls do not seem to improve recall
- Boys more accurate than girls
- Dolls should not be used in questioning children under 5 years old
- Child m
Interviewer Bias
Eliciting a response one expects to hear
- Assume abuse has occurred and want to get a conviction
- Self-fulfilling prophecy: Ones expectations of another leads them to act that way
- Can change what a child reports about an event
- False beliefs elicit m
Blue Sky Bridge
- Carefully trained forensic interviewers conduct all interviews, especially for sexual abuse
- Observation through a one way mirror and audio/video recorded
- Aim is to reduce interviews and provide accurate record
- Interviews, medical examinations and
Best Interest of the Child
- Judge decides custody and visitation plan
- Based on who has been serving as primary caregiver, which parent is better, and which adult is more likely to facilitate a healthy relationship between child and non custodial parent
- Parent problems such as
Guardian ad litem
Support person appointed to the child who looks out for their rights in criminal court proceedings
- Relieve child's fears, increases child's ability to provide answers during direct examination
Status Offenses
- An act against the law only because the person who commits the act is a child
- Truancy, skipping school, underage drinking/smoking, curfew violations
*Juvenile court but separated from juvenile delinquents
The Multimodal Approach
*1/3rd of cases for sexual abuse involve children 6 and younger
1) Play interview with child
2) Interview with each parent about their perceptions and experiences as a parent, spouse, or when they were a kid (structured clinical interview)
3) Seeing child