NCJ Number
202232
Journal
Child Abuse & Neglect Volume: 25 Issue: 12 Dated: December 2001 Pages: 1583-1601
Editor(s)
Richard D. Krugman
Date Published
December 2001
Length
19 pages
Annotation
This paper presents the first part of a study of Swedish child health nurses’ awareness of abuse and neglect with emphasis on specific characteristics of child health nurses.
Abstract
In this part one study of Swedish child health nurses and their awareness of abuse and neglect, an attempt was made to assess: (1) the identification by nurses of abuse and neglect in children less than 1 year to 6 years of age; (2) the overall prevalence of abuse and neglect in children less than 1 year to 6 years of age, per nurse reports; (3) the determinants of nurses’ identification of abuse and neglect; and (4) the determinants of reporting by the child health centers to the protection services. The study was carried out as a nationwide survey in about 3,000 centers. Select findings from the study included: (1) child health nurses’ awareness of abuse and neglect appeared significantly low; (2) identification was significantly higher (65 percent) among nurses working in counties with high general participation rates (70-83 percent); (3) personal interest and social services contacts emerged as important determinants; (4) the overall prevalence was 1.4 percent or 2.2 percent if only positive responses were considered with a total of 6,044 children identified; and (5) the prevalence was higher for districts of small populations than for larger ones. For effective identification, no nurse should be responsible for more than 400 to 500 children. Implications for both practice and research are discussed. References