Child neglect
Child neglect is an act of caregivers that results in depriving a child of their basic needs, such as the failure to provide adequate nutrition, supervision, health care, clothing, or housing, as well as other physical, emotional, social, educational, and safety needs. All societies have established that there are necessary behaviours a caregiver must provide for a child to develop physically, socially, and emotionally. Causes of neglect may result from several parenting problems including mental disorders, unplanned pregnancy, substance use disorder, unemployment, over employment, domestic violence, and, in special cases, poverty.
Child neglect depends on how a child and society perceive the caregiver's behaviour; it is not how parents believe they are behaving toward their child. Parental failure to provide for a child, when options are available, is different from failure to provide when options are not available. Poverty and lack of resources are often contributing factors and can prevent parents from meeting their children's needs when they otherwise would. The circumstances and intentionality must be examined before defining behaviour as neglectful.
Child neglect is the most prevalent form of child abuse. Neglected children are at risk of developing lifelong social, emotional and health problems, particularly if neglected before the age of two years.
Legal parameters are in place in both the U.S. federal and state law, to define child neglect and hold parents responsible for decisions that cause direct impact or harm to their children, or a failure to act on legally required parental duties.
Definition
Neglect is difficult to define since there are no clear, cross-cultural standards for desirable or minimally adequate child-rearing practices. Research shows that neglect often coexists with other forms of abuse and adversity. While neglect generally refers to the absence of parental care and the chronic failure to meet children's basic needs, defining those needs has not been straightforward. In "Working Together", the Department for Education and Skills defined neglect in 2006 as:...the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health or development. Neglect may occur during pregnancy as a result of maternal substance use disorders. Once a child is born, neglect may involve a parent or carer failing to provide adequate food, clothing and shelter ; protect a child from physical and emotional harm or danger; ensure adequate supervision, or ensure access to appropriate medical care or treatment. It may also include neglect of, or unresponsiveness to, a child's basic emotional needs.
Child neglect is commonly defined as a failure by a child's caregiver to meet a child's physical, emotional, educational, or medical needs. Forms of child neglect include: Allowing the child to witness violence or severe abuse between parents or adults, ignoring, insulting, or threatening the child with violence, not providing the child with a safe environment and adult emotional support, and showing reckless disregard for the child's well-being.
Other definitions of child neglect are:
- "The failure of a person responsible for a child's care and upbringing to safeguard the child's emotional and physical health and general well-being." per Webster's New World Law Dictionary
- "Acts of omission: failure to provide for a child's basic physical, emotional, or educational needs or to protect a child from harm or potential harm. harm to a child may or may not be the intended consequence. Failure to provide physical neglect, emotional neglect, medical/dental neglect, and educational neglect. The failure to supervise inadequate supervision, exposure to violent environments." per the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
- "The persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs resulting in serious impairment of health and/or development."
Child neglect is one of the most common forms of child maltreatment, and it continues to be a serious problem for many children. Child neglect tremendously affects the physical development, mental development, and emotional development of a child causing long-term consequences, such as poor academic achievement, depression, and personality disorders. These consequences also impact society, since it is more likely that children who suffered from child neglect will have substance use disorder problems and educational failure when they grow up.
Types
There are various types of child neglect.| Types | Definition | Case study examples |
| Supervisory | Guardian or parent of a child is unable or unwilling to display acceptable supervision or control over the child or young person, e.g. leaving the child alone for long periods. | Henry, a 7-year-old boy, walks home from school every day and looks after himself until his mother comes home at 7 PM. Sometimes, he tries to cook food on the stove or goes for walks to the local shops. |
| Physical | Basic physical needs are not met due to the child not being provided with food, water, clothing, shelter, inadequate hygiene, etc. | Joyce, a 4-year-old girl, is given snacks and McDonald's meals by her father. Her father does not like to cook, and when he does it is just frozen meals. Although she is fed, her nutritional needs are not met. |
| Medical | Refusal or delay in child receiving needed medical care. | Ben, a 9-year-old boy, has had a cough for a month. His parents are worried about his health. However, his father has recently lost his job, so his parents continue to not take him to a doctor because of the financial cost. |
| Educational | Guardian or parent fails to ensure that the child receives formal education, e.g. attending school, ensuring special needs requirements are met. | Chase, an 8-year-old boy, hates school. His mother has given up on making him attend as he throws a tantrum each time. He has missed over a month of school. His teachers suspect that he has a learning disability, but his mother has not had him tested. |
| Emotional | Guardian or parent give inadequate nurturing or affection. The parent or guardian fails to create an environment where the child feels secure, loved, wanted, worthy, etc. | Tiana, a 3-year-old girl, is currently in childcare from 7 AM to 6 PM every weekday. Both her parents work long hours. On the weekends, her parents gave her an iPad to keep her content, but are too busy to play or talk to her directly. |
- Physical neglect refers to the failure to provide a child with necessities of life, such as food and clothing.
- Medical neglect is a failure of caregivers to meet a child's basic health care needs, such as not brushing teeth daily, bathing a child and or taking children to doctor visits when needed.
- Emotional neglect is failing to provide emotional support, such as emotional security and encouragement.
- Educational/developmental neglect is the failure to provide a child with experiences for necessary growth and development, such as not sending a child to school or educating them.
- Depending on the laws and child protection policies in one's area, leaving a young child unsupervised may be considered neglect, especially if doing so places the child in danger.
- Mild neglect is the least likely to be perceived as neglect by the child but raises the possibility of harm in ways that need intervention by the community. An example might be a parent who does not use a proper car safety seat.
- Moderate neglect occurs when some harm to the child has occurred. An example might be a child repeatedly dressed inappropriately for the weather In cases of moderate harm, governmental agencies might be called in to assist parents.
- Severe neglect occurs over time and results in significant harm to the child. An example might be a child with asthma being denied treatment.
Experience
Also, young children may not be provided with a suitable amount of decent food to eat, which is another form of neglect. Children have reported being provided with mouldy food, not having any food in the house, or they were given an insufficient amount of food.