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emotional stimulus results in a "bonsai"-like pruning of the child's intellectual roots.
Many of-these children end up as school dropouts or unemployable adults (Mc Kay
1983 : 24).
(d) Neglect and abandonment
Neglect and abandonment of children are unfortunately extremely co=on in South
Africa. Much of this is due to socio-political problems which beset our land, the
breakdown of family life and the precipitation of many young people into parenthood
without any preparation. Their children end up in institutions, many of which are
understaffed. Hence, while the children are protected, fed and cleaned, they receive
little or no stimulus emotionally or intellectually. Such children lack motivation when
they reach school age and perform inadequately or drop out to become street children.
With no family support and no opportunity to improve their lot, many become
involved in petty crime (Winship 1988 : 95).
Neglect is a far more pervasive problem than physical abuse, occurring in twice as
many cases (Pelton 1978). When harm to the child is severe enough to have required
hospitalisation it is from one and a half to two times more likely to have been due to
neglect than physical abuse. In addition, neglect is more likely to be more strongly
related to poverty than abuse, according to figures of the American Humane Society
(1978). Neglect complaints to Child Welfare agencies are many in number, far
outnumbering the abuse complaints according to Cantwell (1980).Unlike physical
abuse which can be more easily identified through physical signs, x-rays, etc. neglect
is more difficult to document and is more readily accepted. Zalba (1975) defined
neglect as the "chronic failure of adults to protect children from obvious physical
danger and to provide them with the material necessities oflife." Pelton (1978) pointed
out that one of the most co=on forms of neglect leading to death is that parents
leave young children alone. Pelton (1978) stressed the link between poverty and
neglect and said that concrete services should be offered to the poor in the form of
house finding, rat control, baby sitting services, day creches, subsidised food, etc.
Reducing the stresses of poverty will have a strong impact on parent's behaviour, thus