Child Neglect and Emotional Maltreatment

Child maltreatment is a pervasive and widespread phenomenon in the United States. While the incidence of child maltreatment had been on the decline until approximately 2012, since that time, the rates have increased somewhat. Child maltreatment affects all age groups of children and youth, although infants and younger children are at the highest risk for victimization. In addition, for many years, all forms of child maltreatment were addressed collectively, with scant research on how distinct types might co-occur or individually present. Through many research, policy, and practice advances in recent years, there is growing awareness regarding how each abuse type is relatively unique in terms of the risks for manifestation, as well as in the outcomes from and interventions for their respective perpetration. Two types of maltreatment—child neglect and emotional abuse—reflect intriguing trends in this overall phenomenon. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, across all types of maltreatment, child neglect is the most frequently reported form of abuse, while emotional abuse is among the least reported. These reports, however, are derived from statutory definitions and investigations and likely do not convey the true incidence of abuse that occurs in the United States. Moreover, these two types of maltreatment are all the more compelling because they can be perceived as not having visible signs of victimization, thereby making the recognition and verification of their harm difficult to discern. As such, for this and several other factors, research on neglect and emotional abuse have often been linked together. Since the 1990s, however, research has begun to highlight the unique contextual factors associated with their manifestation as well as the negative ramifications of each. Therefore, this chapter begins by presenting broad reference and resource information relevant to both types of abuse. Subsequently, the chapter diverges to focus solely on neglect and emotional abuse as distinct forms of child maltreatment.