Vincent J. Fontana Center for Child Protection of the NY Foundling, United States.
Teachers College, Columbia University, United States.
Child Abuse Negl. 2021 Apr;114:104941. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2021.104941. Epub 2021 Jan 29.
Despite reliable definitions and evidence of harm to children, psychological maltreatment (PM) is significantly less reported to Child Protective Services than physical or sexual abuse in the United States (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2016).
The goal of this study was to identify factors influencing identification and intent to report psychological maltreatment.
The sample was comprised of membership of the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC), a multi-disciplinary group of professionals in the field of child maltreatment.
An anonymous online survey was administered with a 39 % (N = 538) response rate.
Only 4 of the 18 items, preselected by experts as representing all PM subtypes in the APSAC- endorsed definition (Hart, Brassard, Baker, & Chiel, 2019), were identified by most respondents as definitely PM. Most respondents believed that PM was associated with harmful outcomes "sometimes" or "mostly." Respondents revealed an intent to report to CPS only 4 of the 18 PM behaviors. Identification of a behavior as PM and as harmful predicted intent to report, explaining between 8-11 percent of the variance.
Professionals in the field of maltreatment need more training on identification and reporting of PM. A model definition of PM should be developed in order to increase reliability of identification of psychological maltreatment.
尽管对儿童的心理虐待（PM）有可靠的定义和危害证据，但与美国的身体或性虐待相比，向儿童保护服务机构报告的 PM 明显较少（美国卫生与公众服务部，2016 年）。
本研究的目的是确定影响 PM 识别和报告意图的因素。
该样本由美国专业虐待儿童协会（APSAC）的成员组成，这是一个多学科的虐待儿童领域的专业人员团体。
采用匿名在线调查，回应率为 39%（N=538）。
只有专家预先选定的 18 项中的 4 项，代表 APSAC 认可的定义中的所有 PM 亚型（Hart、Brassard、Baker 和 Chiel，2019 年），被大多数受访者确定为绝对的 PM。大多数受访者认为 PM 与“有时”或“主要”的有害后果有关。受访者仅对 18 种 PM 行为中的 4 种表示有意向 CPS 报告。将一种行为识别为 PM 并认为其具有危害性，可预测报告意图，解释了 8-11%的差异。
虐待领域的专业人员需要更多关于 PM 的识别和报告的培训。应该制定一个 PM 的模型定义，以提高心理虐待的识别可靠性。
