University of Ulm, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry / Psychotherapy, Germany; Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Social Work, Switzerland.
Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, School of Social Work, Switzerland.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Jan;111:104798. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2020.104798. Epub 2020 Nov 16.
As many countries lack (multi-sectoral) data on the epidemiology of agency responses to child maltreatment, they do not know if children in different regions of the country have equal chances to receive help and protection. The Optimus Study, the first nationally representative Swiss study on multi-sectoral responses to child maltreatment, examines gaps in identifying children in need and reveals opportunities for improved support and protection.
A stratified sample of 351 agencies (participation rate 81 %) in the social and health sector, public child protection, and the penal sector provided data on new cases between September 1 and November 30, 2016. The resulting study data on 7651 cases included information on the maltreatment incident, specifics of the report/referral, and child characteristics. The weighting procedure to produce national estimates was based on inverse sampling probabilities and inverse response rates.
In the 3-month period, an estimated 10,335 cases were referred/reported to agencies in multiple sectors of the child protection system in Switzerland. This corresponded to 66 cases per 10,000 children. Rates were highest for adolescents (aged 13+), with 69 cases per 10,000 children. Lower rates for school-aged children coincided with a relatively low percentage of reports/referrals from the schools (8 %). Regional variance was extensive, with rates more than quadrupling from a low of 26 cases to a high of 107 cases per 10,000 children. Types of child maltreatment handled by agencies in the different sectors varied. Gender distribution was lopsided for sexual abuse, with many more girls experiencing incidents of sexual abuse, and unequal for incidents of neglect and psychological maltreatment.
There are gaps in the identification of maltreated preschoolers. Promoting health checkups for this age group is a potential solution. However, school-aged children up to age 11 are underreported as well, as the schools contribute only marginally to child maltreatment reporting. The findings of the study are being used to initiate the implementation of continuous and multi-sectoral child maltreatment surveillance in Switzerland.
由于许多国家缺乏（多部门）关于机构对虐待儿童事件反应的流行病学数据，因此他们不知道该国不同地区的儿童是否有平等的机会获得帮助和保护。Optimus 研究是瑞士首次对虐待儿童的多部门反应进行的全国代表性研究，该研究检查了识别有需要儿童方面的差距，并揭示了改善支持和保护的机会。
社会和卫生部门、公共儿童保护部门和刑事部门的 351 个机构（参与率为 81%）按分层抽样的方式，在 2016 年 9 月 1 日至 11 月 30 日期间提供了新案件的数据。这项研究共涉及 7651 例案件，包括虐待事件的信息、报告/转介的具体情况以及儿童特征。产生全国估计数的加权程序基于反向抽样概率和反向响应率。
在 3 个月的时间里，估计有 10335 例案件被转介/报告给瑞士儿童保护系统多部门的机构。这相当于每 10000 名儿童中有 66 例。青少年（13 岁以上）的比例最高，每 10000 名儿童中有 69 例。学龄儿童的比例较低，与学校报告/转介的比例相对较低（8%）一致。地区差异很大，比率从低的每 10000 名儿童 26 例到高的每 10000 名儿童 107 例翻了两番多。不同部门的机构处理的儿童虐待类型不同。在性虐待方面，性别分布严重失衡，有更多的女孩经历过性虐待事件，而在忽视和心理虐待方面则不平等。
在识别受虐的学龄前儿童方面存在差距。为这个年龄段的儿童提供健康检查是一个潜在的解决方案。然而，学校年龄段的儿童也被低估了，因为学校对儿童虐待报告的贡献微乎其微。该研究的结果正在被用来启动在瑞士实施连续的多部门儿童虐待监测。
