Recession’s Impact On Child Abuse

A recent study has shown that we have more to be concerned with in this time of economic chaos than many of us were aware of. Dr Rachel Berger of the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburg, the lead author of a study on the economy and its potential relationship to child abuse has confirmed a connection between the two. Dr Berger, hearing reports of increasing cases of shaken baby syndrome and other brain-injury forms of child abuse during our extended time of a nation in economic crisis, decided to give this a closer look.

This study consisted of 422 cases of abused children. It was found that most were from low income households. It is important to note that 4 states – Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio, and Washington – were involved in this study which included a total of 74 counties within those states. Some study details:

• Children in the study were under the age of 5
• Children in the study were mostly infants
• Most of these children had suffered brain damage
• A total of 69 of these children died
• The death rate actually did not rise during the recession
• Study confirmed increase in shaken-baby syndrome

Dr Berger decided to focus on this particular type of injury due to increases in cases during the period of 2007 through 2009. In the counties used for this study there was an increase of 65 percent in abusive head trauma when comparing recession case numbers against pre-recession cases. In response to this and weighing in the many burdens on families during this recession, according to Mark Rank, a social welfare professor at Washington University at St Louis, this can create “a sort of toxic brew in terms of thinking about possible physical violence.”

Read more: http://technorati.com/women/article/recessions-impact-on-child-abuse/#ixzz1aym9DbjE