Director, Childhood Adversity Research Program, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Adjunct Professor, Johns Hopkins University, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore MD, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2020 Jan 28;15(1):e0227884. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0227884. eCollection 2020.
Child maltreatment through physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence, causes substantial adverse health, educational and behavioural consequences through the lifespan. The generation of reliable data on the prevalence and characteristics of child maltreatment in nationwide populations is essential to plan and evaluate public health interventions to reduce maltreatment. Measurement of child maltreatment must overcome numerous methodological challenges. Little is known to date about the extent, nature and methodological quality of these national studies. This study aimed to systematically review the most comprehensive national studies of the prevalence of child maltreatment, and critically appraise their methodologies to help inform the design of future studies.
Guided by PRISMA and following a published protocol, we searched 22 databases from inception to 31 May 2019 to identify nationwide studies of the prevalence of either all five or at least four forms of child maltreatment. We conducted a formal quality assessment and critical analysis of study design.
This review identified 30 national prevalence studies of all five or at least four forms of child maltreatment, in 22 countries. While sound approaches are available for different settings, methodologies varied widely in nature and robustness. Some instruments are more reliable and obtain more detailed and useful information about the characteristics of the maltreatment, including its nature, frequency, and the relationship between the child and the person who inflicted the maltreatment. Almost all studies had limitations, especially in the level of detail captured about maltreatment, and the adequacy of constructs of maltreatment types.
Countries must invest in rigorous national studies of the prevalence of child maltreatment. Studies should use a sound instrument containing appropriate maltreatment constructs, and obtain nuanced information about its nature.
儿童受虐待，包括身体虐待、性虐待、情感虐待、忽视和目睹家庭暴力，会对其健康、教育和行为产生重大的负面影响，并贯穿一生。在全国范围内生成关于儿童虐待流行率和特征的可靠数据对于规划和评估减少虐待的公共卫生干预措施至关重要。衡量儿童虐待必须克服许多方法学挑战。迄今为止，对于这些国家研究的范围、性质和方法学质量知之甚少。本研究旨在系统地回顾关于儿童虐待流行率的最全面的国家研究，并批判性地评估其方法学，以帮助为未来的研究提供信息。
本研究遵循 PRISMA 指南和已发表的方案，从成立到 2019 年 5 月 31 日，我们在 22 个数据库中进行了搜索，以确定关于所有五种或至少四种形式的儿童虐待的全国性流行率研究。我们对研究设计进行了正式的质量评估和批判性分析。
本综述确定了 22 个国家的 30 项关于所有五种或至少四种形式的儿童虐待的全国流行率研究。虽然针对不同情况有可靠的方法，但方法在性质和稳健性上差异很大。一些工具更可靠，可获得关于虐待特征的更详细和有用的信息，包括其性质、频率以及儿童与施虐者之间的关系。几乎所有的研究都存在局限性，尤其是在捕捉虐待程度和虐待类型结构的充分性方面。
各国必须投资进行关于儿童虐待流行率的严格的全国性研究。研究应使用包含适当虐待结构的可靠工具，并获取关于其性质的细致信息。
