Fourth National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and Neglect (NIS–4)

oth parents showed much smaller changes in those categories (a 15% decrease and 2%increase, respectively). The pattern for changes in rates of Endangerment Standard abuseis somewhat different, however. There, the rate for children in single-parent homesshowed negligible change (just a 6% increase), whereas the rate for children living withtwo parents decreased substantially (by 46%).Abuse. Figure 5–14, which gives the percent changes in rates for specificabuse categories, demonstrates that the pattern of smaller changes in rates for singleparentchildren and large rate decreases for two-parent children carries through in allabuse categories. The rates for children in one-parent households increased by 11% inEndangerment Standard physical abuse and by 21% in sexual abuse. The rate ofemotional abuse for single-parent children actually decreased by 17%. By contrast, therates for children in two-parent homes decreased substantially in all abuse categories—physical abuse decreased by 34%, sexual abuse decreased by 60%, and emotional abusedecreased by 55%.Figure 5–14.Percent Changes since NIS–3 in Rates of Specific Categories ofEndangerment Standard Abuse by Family Structure.Neglect. Figure 5–15 shows that the overall neglect pattern, whereby singleparentchildren showed a large rate increase and two-parent children showed a lesserincrease, only applied to emotional neglect. The rate of Endangerment Standardemotional neglect increased 200% for single-parent children, whereas it increased 58%for two-parent children. The relationship between family structure and changes sinceNIS–3 in rates of physical neglect was less dramatic, although still statistically5–38