Children's experience of harm and abuse has a profound impact on their health and well-being. In response, school-based prevention programmes have been developed and delivered by external organisations with the aim of improving children's awareness and understanding of forms of harm and abuse which may affect them, encouraging them to seek help if…

Opponents of homeschooling associate it with unchecked and unreported abuse and neglect of children, often arguing for more regulation of or an outright ban of home education. Do homeschool students experience more maltreatment than those in schools and, if so, is it happening in or outside the home? Empirical evidence to answer this question is…

Despite the growing awareness of child abuse, little academic research examines religious abuse and trauma during childhood. This paper constructs an interdisciplinary and intersectional heuristic of childhood religious trauma and abuse (RTA) by weaving together psychological and theo-philosophical literature with Rebecca Nye's theory of childhood…

Child marriage in Tanzania is a critical human rights issue in Tanzania and around the globe. This article focuses on the legal structure of Tanzania to show that Tanzania's Law of Marriage Act, Sections 13 and 17, enacted in 1971, violates its constitution and obligations in international human rights treaties and the Universal Declaration of…

This study investigated the narrative coherence of children's accounts elicited in multiple forensic interviews. Transcriptions of 56 police interviews with 28 children aged 3-14 years alleging physical and sexual abuse were coded for markers of completeness, consistency and connectedness. We found that multiple interviews increased the…

The present study assessed how attorneys questioned children in cases of child sexual abuse in the United States tried between 2005 and 2015. Trial testimonies (N = 134) of 5- to 17-year-olds (M = 12 years old) were coded for the linguistic form of attorneys' questions and children's subsequent responses. Three fourths of all questions were closed…

Stress during pregnancy affects maternal health and well-being, as well as the health and well-being of the next generation, in part through the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. Although most studies have focused solely on proximal experiences (i.e., during the pregnancy) as sources of prenatal stress, there has been a recent surge in…

iLookOut for Child Abuse (iLookOut) is an online, interactive educational programme designed to help early childhood educators/practitioners protect young children from harm, and in particular to become better at identifying and reporting suspected child abuse. The purpose of this paper is to describe the conceptual foundations and practical…

The problem is school systems may lack detailed guidelines on how teachers make physical contact with their students and protect themselves from false accusations of inappropriate behaviors. The purpose of this qualitative exploratory case study was to explore the perceptions of K-8 administrators and teachers on school and school districts…

This study aims to examine the (1) prevalence of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) among children in kinship care; (2) relationships between the number and type of ACEs and children's internalizing and externalizing problems; and (3) moderating role of kinship caregivers' mental health on the relationships between ACEs and children's…

Childhood exposure to adversity and its consequences is a significant public health challenge. Schools are beginning to understand the impact of adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) and some schools are considering screening for ACEs. However, dissemination of the ACEs screener and subsequent interventions may lead to challenges and iatrogenic…

Background: Children and adolescents in residential care have more adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) than those living in any other type of care. However, there is scant research on risk factors accounting for this accumulation. Objective: To establish the prevalence of ACEs in child residential care and to explore predictors of accumulation…

Background: Infants, children, and youth in foster care have frequently experienced prenatal substance exposure (PSE), neglect, and maltreatment as well as disruptions in their relationships with families. They also have great capacity for overcoming early adversities. In this synthesis of two previously conducted scoping reviews, we aimed to…

This study sought to examine whether mumbling might, for some youths, arise among traumatic sequelae. College students provided retrospective reports of mumbling and completed standardized measures of trauma history and posttraumatic distress (Brief Trauma Questionnaire, Beck Anxiety Inventory for Primary Care, Toronto Alexithymia Scale, and the…

Despite findings that developmental timing of maltreatment is a critical factor in predicting subsequent outcomes, children's developmental stage is understudied in maltreatment research. Moreover, childhood maltreatment is associated with the development of maladaptive peer relationships and psychopathology, with social cognition identified as a…