Child Care and Child Abuse: What Research Tells Us

The American Psychological Association (APA) believes that there needs to be a national strategy for the prevention and treatment of child abuse and neglect. Because of the increasing number of children in child care, a successful child abuse prevention strategy must include child care settings. Child care programs can help reduce child abuse by providing supports to high-risk families and by training child care staff in appropriate child behavior management strategies and in procedures for detecting and reporting child abuse.

Characteristics of Families Where Child Abuse Occurs

Family stress is related to child maltreatment. Many studies have shown that families with multiple stressors experience more domestic violence and child maltreatment. Stressors related to child maltreatment include child care problems, financial problems, and maternal depression.

High risk families are more socially isolated. Several studies have shown a relationship between social isolation and child abuse. Families that do not receive support through social services, religious organizations, or other social and kinship networks are at greater risk for many problems, including child abuse.

Basic parenting skills are often lacking among parents who abuse their children. Parents who mistreat their children have been shown to have poorer parenting skills. This is seen in less monitoring of children's activities, less supervision, and less positive interactions between parents and children.

How Child Care Can Help Abused and At-risk Children

Affordable, quality child care provides needed support to high-risk families. Affordable, quality child care can support already overwhelmed families by reducing the stress of undependable child care, reducing the financial burden of child care, exposing parents to appropriate and effective adult-child interactions, and providing a connection to community resources.

Staff training can reduce maltreatment of children in child care settings. The news media have publicized many instances where children were abused in child care settings. Appropriate training of staff can reduce the incidence of such tragic outcomes as shaken-baby syndrome as well as other, less serious, forms of inappropriate caregiving.

Trained staff can provide appropriate care to high-risk children. Child care staff who are trained in child development can offer appropriate care and attention for children who might not be receiving it at home. Specially trained staff can also intervene earlier and provide care for children who have already been abused.

Recommendations

• Affordable, quality child care must be available to high-risk families. This includes special care for children who have already been identified as victims of maltreatment.



• Child care staff must have training in the appropriate treatment of children, including child development and appropriate behavior management.



• Child care staff must be trained in the identification, detection, and reporting of child maltreatment.



• Child care settings must work in collaboration with other local agencies serving children when appropriate to provide support for high-risk families.



• Continued research and evaluation is needed to help state and local agencies improve both the quality of child care and long-term outcomes for children in child care.

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