Injuries From Physical Abuse: National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence I–III

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Am J Prev Med
• Personal Author:
  Simon, Thomas R. ; Shattuck, Anne ; Kacha-Ochana, Akadia ; David-Ferdon, Corinne F. ; Hamby, Sherry ; Henly, Megan ; Merrick, Melissa T. ; Turner, Heather A. ; Finkelhor, David
• Description:
  Introduction
  
  Official data sources do not provide researchers, practitioners, and policy makers with complete information on physical injury from child abuse. This analysis provides a national estimate of the percentage of children who were injured during their most recent incident of physical abuse.
  
  Methods
  
  Pooled data from three cross-sectional national telephone survey samples (N=13,052 children) included in the National Survey of Children’s Exposure to Violence completed in 2008, 2011, and 2014 were used.
  
  Results
  
  Analyses completed in 2016 indicate that 8.4% of children experienced physical abuse by a caregiver. Among those with injury data, 42.6% were injured in the most recent incident. No differences in injury were observed by sex, age, race/ethnicity, or disability status. Victims living with two parents were less likely to be injured (27.1%) than those living in other family structures (53.8%–59%, p<0.001). Incidents involving an object were more likely to result in injury (59.3% vs 38.5%, p<0.05). Injured victims were significantly more likely to experience substantial fear (57.3%) than other victims (34.4%, p<0.001).
  
  Conclusions
  
  A substantial percentage of physical abuse victims are physically hurt to the point that they still feel pain the next day, are bruised, cut, or have a broken bone. Self-report data indicate this is a more common problem than official data sources suggest. The lack of an object in an incident of physical abuse does not protect a child from injury. The results underscore the impact of childhood physical abuse and the importance of early prevention activities.
• Subjects:
  • Adolescent
  • Caregivers
  • Child
  • Child Abuse
  • Child, Preschool
  • Cross-Sectional Studies
  • Ethnicity
  • Exposure to Violence
  • Family
  • Female
  More +
• Source:
  Am J Prev Med. 54(1):129-132
• Pubmed ID:
  29132955
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5878920
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  CC999999/Intramural CDC HHS/United States
• Volume:
  54
• Issue:
  1
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/53015/cdc_53015_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 59.59 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:1391ba0197160ad25d80ada040530ed430e22a3f129328a1b50a6301ea5acb32