Jennissen Charles A, Evans Erin, Oral Resmiye, Denning Gerene
Department of Emergency Medicine, Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Roy J. and Lucille A. Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA, USA.
Inj Epidemiol. 2018 Apr 10;5(Suppl 1):16. doi: 10.1186/s40621-018-0144-0.
Only 14 states have laws or guidelines regarding the minimum age a child may be left home alone. These ages range from 6 to 14 years. Our objective was to identify factors that influence child neglect determination by experts with regards to parents leaving children home alone.
American Academy of Pediatrics Section on Child Abuse and Neglect members (N = 523) were surveyed from July-August, 2015. Respondents were asked whether scenarios involving a child of varying age knowingly left home alone for 4 h were neglect in the presence or absence of injury to the child and the legality of the situation. Comparisons were performed using the chi-square test.
One hundred ninety-three members responded (36.9%). In the scenario where there were no relevant laws and the child was uninjured, nearly 100% of the child experts determined this as being child neglect when the child was 6 years old. For 8, 10, 12, and 14 year olds, this was 88, 48, 4, and 1%, respectively. However, a significantly higher percentage of experts considered it child neglect for most ages when there was a law making the scenario illegal as compared when there was no law, and when the child was injured versus when they were not. The only demographic variable that showed a difference in child neglect determination was that females were more likely to consider higher aged children as having been neglected when there were no laws but the child was injured. The vast majority of experts (85%) stated that leaving a child home alone for 4 h should be illegal if the child is < 9 years old, and nearly one-half (44%) said it should be illegal for children < 11 years old.
A number of factors affect how experts view children being left home alone as potential child neglect. Our data suggests that such cases may be evaluated differently due to variations in state laws, even though the risk to the child is the same. These results call for child safety law reform to provide greater uniformity in the evaluation of potential child neglect cases and better protect the safety of children.
只有14个州制定了关于儿童可独自留在家中的最低年龄的法律或指导方针。这些年龄范围从6岁到14岁。我们的目标是确定影响专家对父母将孩子独自留在家中判定为忽视儿童情况的因素。
2015年7月至8月对美国儿科学会虐待与忽视儿童分会的成员（N = 523）进行了调查。询问受访者，涉及不同年龄儿童明知被独自留在家中4小时的情景，在儿童有无受伤以及该情景是否合法的情况下是否构成忽视。使用卡方检验进行比较。
193名成员做出了回应（36.9%）。在没有相关法律且儿童未受伤的情景中，当儿童为6岁时，近100%的儿童专家将此判定为忽视儿童。对于8岁、10岁、12岁和14岁的儿童，这一比例分别为88%、48%、4%和1%。然而，与没有法律时相比，当存在使该情景违法的法律时，以及当儿童受伤时与未受伤时相比，大多数年龄的专家认为这构成忽视儿童的比例显著更高。在判定忽视儿童方面显示出差异的唯一人口统计学变量是，在没有法律但儿童受伤的情况下，女性更有可能认为年龄较大的儿童被忽视。绝大多数专家（85%）表示，如果儿童小于9岁，将其独自留在家中4小时应该是违法的，近一半（44%）的专家表示，对于小于11岁的儿童应该是违法的。
许多因素影响专家如何看待将孩子独自留在家中视为潜在的忽视儿童情况。我们的数据表明，即使对儿童的风险相同，但由于州法律的差异，此类案件的评估可能会有所不同。这些结果呼吁进行儿童安全法改革，以便在评估潜在的忽视儿童案件时提供更大的一致性，并更好地保护儿童的安全。
