National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and ... - Children's Central

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4. Distribution of Child Abuse and Neglect by the Child’sCharacteristicsThe child’s sex, age, race, disability status, and school enrollment were allrelated to rates of maltreatment.Child’s sex. Girls were sexually abused much more often than boys, underboth the Harm Standard and the Endangerment Standard. This finding is consistent withearlier NIS results, so females’ disproportionately greater risk of sexual abuse has beenstable over time. This sex difference in incidence rates of sexual abuse leads to higherrates of abuse in general among girls. Also, because the definitional guidelines permitthe inference that injury or harm occurred in connection with the more extreme forms ofsexual abuse, girls’ greater risk of sexual abuse also accounts for their higher incidencerates for inferred injury.Boys’ rates of Harm Standard physical neglect and of serious harm underboth standards decreased more since the NIS–3 than the corresponding rates for girls.The incidence of boys who experienced Endangerment Standard emotional neglectincreased less since the NIS–3 than that of girls. Moreover, trends in the incidence ofinferred harm from Endangerment Standard maltreatment moved in opposite directionsfor girls and boys—the incidence of girls with inferred harm declined slightly since theNIS–3, while the incidence of boys with inferred harm rose.Child’s age. A consistent feature of the age differences in NIS–4 incidencerates is the lower incidence of maltreatment among the youngest children in the HarmStandard abuse and neglect rates and in the rates of Endangerment Standard abuse. Inmost cases, the 0- to 2-year-olds had significantly lower maltreatment rates than olderchildren. It is possible that the lower rates at these younger ages reflect someundercoverage of these age groups. That is, prior to attaining school age, children areless observable to community professionals.In contrast, the age differences in Endangerment Standard neglect (overall, aswell as in the specific categories of physical neglect and emotional neglect) revealed adistinctly different pattern. In these categories, the oldest children (15- to 17-year-olds)have the lowest rates and 6- to 8-year-olds have the highest rates. This curvilinear agepattern may reflect the combination of opposing age distributions for different8
maltreatment outcomes—rates of children with serious and moderate harm frommaltreatment generally increase with increasing age, whereas rates of children who wereendangered, but not demonstrably harmed, by their maltreatment experiences sharplydecrease across the age continuum. Because the endangered children are more prevalentamong those who experienced Endangerment Standard physical and emotional neglect,this opposing age trend primarily affected the age distribution in these categories, shapingthe curvilinear pattern.Another recurring theme in connection with age was that of disproportionateincreases since the NIS–3 in the incidence of maltreatment among the youngest children(ages 0 to 2). This occurred for rates of Harm Standard sexual abuse and, in theEndangerment Standard, for overall maltreatment, neglect, emotional neglect, and theendangerment outcome. All of these are categories where the NIS–4 maltreatment ratesfor the youngest children are not lower than those for the older children. The changessince the NIS–3 have essentially flattened the age differences in incidence rates,evidencing broad vulnerability across the age spectrum. These changes may reflect trueincreases in maltreatment of the youngest children or could instead representimprovement in the NIS coverage of these maltreatment events among 0- to 2-year-olds.Race/ethnicity. Unlike previous NIS cycles, the NIS–4 found strong andpervasive race differences in the incidence of maltreatment. In nearly all cases, the ratesof maltreatment for Black children were significantly higher than those for White andHispanic children. These differences occurred under both definitional standards in ratesof overall maltreatment, overall abuse, overall neglect, and physical abuse and forchildren with serious or moderate harm from their maltreatment. They also occurred inthe incidence of Harm Standard sexual abuse, in the incidence of children who wereinferred to be harmed by Harm Standard maltreatment, and in Endangerment Standardrates for physical neglect, emotional maltreatment, and children who were endangeredbut not demonstrably harmed by their maltreatment.In part, the emergence of race/ethnicity differences in the NIS–4 may stemfrom the greater precision of the NIS–4 estimates. Statistical tests are able to detect moreof the underlying differences when estimates are more precise. However, the recentlyidentified race/ethnicity differences are also consistent with changes in maltreatment ratessince the NIS–3. While general declines in rates of maltreatment were noted since theNIS–3, these declines did not occur equally for all races and ethnicities. Rather, under9
Page 1 and 2: Fourth National Incidence Studyof C
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Page 5 and 6: EXECUTIVE SUMMARYThis executive sum
Page 7 and 8: In the NIS classifications, maltrea
Page 9 and 10: 3. The National Incidence of Child
Page 11: (36%, or 302,600 children) were emo
Page 15 and 16: details that would exclude legitima
Page 17 and 18: Grandparents as caregivers. The NIS
Page 19 and 20: males more often were abusers (62%
Page 21: maltreated children to enter CPS in
Page 26: • In the Sentinel Definitions Sur

National Incidence Study of Child Abuse and ... - Children's Central

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