5.1: Introduction and Learning Objectives

Chapter 5: What is Child Neglect? – Physical, Educational and Emotional Neglect

Child neglect happens because of the failure of parents or other adults to meet the basic human needs of a child. There are many factors that cause children to be neglected, some cultural, some ecological, and others individual. Neglectful parents are sometimes acting out of what they lacked as a child themselves. They tend to be isolated, have difficulty maintaining relationships, emotionally and verbally inaccessible, lack knowledge and judgment, and lack the maturation needed to effectively parent their own children. Children who have been neglected may demonstrate poor large and small motor skills, slowed growth cognitively and physically, delayed language development, unattended medical problems, malnutrition, flat emotional affect, miss educational opportunities, etc. They also may be socially and emotionally delayed. Society must first understand child neglect before it can work to break the cycle.

Learning Objectives

By the completion of this module, students should be able to:

• Describe the various types of child neglect.
• Identify situations or traits which may lead to parents neglecting their children.
• Describe the harmful outcomes to children, caused by neglect.
• Discuss potential ways to break the cycle of child neglect.

What IS Child Neglect?

Child neglect, itself, has been a neglected topic in the research and treatment of child maltreatment. Neglect is more difficult to identify and prove than is physical or sexual child abuse. Neglect tends to be a long-term situation, often centered in problems much larger than the child. Because of this, intervention in neglectful situations is a gradual process of teaching parents how to meet the needs of their child. Child neglect does not know socioeconomic levels. Child neglect is something that happens in all walks of life.

"Alone" by Behzad No is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

What is neglect?

Before we can fully understand the neglect of children, we must first define what it means. This area of child maltreatment has been understudied and tends to be blurred in definition. Generally speaking, child neglect refers to a parent's failure to meet the basic needs of their child. These needs may be:

• physical (providing for the physical needs, food, exercise, clothing, shelter, etc.)
• educational (ensuring the child goes to school or is homeschooled, and that their education is otherwise supported appropriately),
• emotional (ensuring that the child is emotionally cared for, listened to and develops feelings of self-worth)
• medical (immunizations, well-child check-ups, infections and diseases, etc. are appropriately and promptly provided for; parent takes the child to the doctor as needed.)
• mental health (The child is exposed to examples of appropriate mental health, and is seen by mental health professionals if and when needed)

Various researchers have further divided each of these areas; for the purposes of this class, we will keep our definition streamlined.

In the 1960s, Norman Polansky and colleagues conducted extensive research on urban and rural neglectful mothers. Although both mothers and fathers may be considered neglectful, in the 1960s especially, the mothers tended to be the ones raising the children. Polansky, et al developed the Childhood Level of Living Scale (CLL) a tool to indicate whether or not children were being neglected. This instrument remains one of the more comprehensive available, although it lacks cultural sensitivity. This culturally biased instrument may be used today but must be used with cultural and other considerations. The definition of neglect is heavily influenced by the accepted norms of society at a given time.