News
This past week, the respected Pediatrics published a study that suggested child abuse had risen because of the recession.
The research focused on 422 abused children who lived in Kentucky, Ohio, Washington and Pennsylvania, and suffered some form of head trauma.
Lead author Dr. Rachel Berger of Children's Hospital of Pittsburgh said she decided to focus on young children who suffered abusive head trauma after noticing an increase at her hospital between 2007 and 2009.
The study found that the number of children who received head injuries increased 66 percent — from 9 cases per 100,000 children before the recession to 15 per 100,000 children during the recession.
The study was released Monday, and within a few days it was picked up by dozens of newspapers and blogs around the world.
Slump in the economy has resulted in an increase in the cases of child mistreatment in the nation, reveals a recent research, quoted FrenchTribune.com.
There is fresh evidence to suggest children are victimized more … when families must cope with a failing economy, said the story in the Times Herald of Port Huron, Mich.
Children in Florida were not part of the study. But here in the center of the economic maelstrom you might expect to find the same trend — financially strapped parents lashing out against their children — perhaps even worse.
We went to the experts to see if perhaps they were seeing more incidents of babies being shaken or with more head injuries. We discovered a perplexing twist.
The number of children statewide who died from abusive head trauma had actually decreased — from 28 in 2007 to 20 in 2009.
At All Children's Hospital, the director of the emergency room said he had not noticed a spike in children with that particular injury during the recession, according to Ann Miller, hospital spokeswoman.
Over at the Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office, the story was similar. "We're seeing about the same," said Maj. Rob Bullara, who heads up the child protective division.
Likewise at the Department of Children and Family Services.
"For the Suncoast region, we are not seeing an increase in abusive head trauma in regards to child abuse," said Terri Durdaller, a spokeswoman for DCF.
In addition, national data from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed that overall, child abuse had decreased during the recession — from 723,000 child victims in 2007 to 702,000 in 2009.
All these numbers and opinions seemed to produce a giant question mark. Was head trauma and/or child abuse up, or was it down? Had the recession contributed to an increase, or not?
Here's what the researchers in Pittsburgh had written:
"Although it is not possible to prove a causal relationship between the abusive head trauma rate and the economy with our analysis, we believe the data are compelling enough to influence policy and clinical decisions."
They also offered an explanation for the inconsistency. They said the federal data are based on reports from child protection services — not from medical diagnoses — and it didn't focus on brain injuries.
Ben Tanzer, of Prevent Child Abuse America in Chicago, shed some additional light on this. He said there has always been a discrepancy between doctors and child protection workers over how to report child abuse data.
"There is continual debate on how to define things and how to report them," Tanzer said. "The system isn't uniform across the country so you hear varying things from state to state."
Tanzer, who has seen budgets for child abuse prevention cut, said the study is important as it is the first to link child abuse and the recession. He was happy to see that connection made.
"For me, we know there is increased stress on parents," he said. "And we know there is less money going to things that have proven effective (to prevent child abuse). The larger debate is how we choose to support all the children across the country."
It would seem unpopular and cruel to try to say that the study is wrong or even contradictory, or that agencies such as Prevent Child Abuse should get less money or that all those children who suffered needlessly don't need help.
But if researchers are offering their work as justification for new government policies, it would be nice if the numbers were more conclusive.
Times reporter Leonora LaPeter Anton can be reached at lapeter@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8640.
Loading...
