Citation

Scott JG, Mathews B. Med. J. Aust. 2023; 218(Suppl 6): S3-S4.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2023, Australian Medical Association, Publisher Australasian Medical Publishing)

DOI

10.5694/mja2.51867

PMID

37004180

Abstract

Child maltreatment, comprising physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence, is a serious public health concern. Its causal associations with health risk behaviours, physical illness and mental health problems are well established.1, 2 Despite the enormous burden of disease attributable to child maltreatment in Australia,3 there are significant gaps in our knowledge. Information is lacking on the prevalence of child maltreatment, trends over time, patterns of exposure to multiple forms of maltreatment, and associated health risk behaviours and health outcomes through life.

This supplement introduces the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), the first national survey in the world to study in detail the experiences and associated health and social outcomes of all five forms of child maltreatment. Funded by the National Health and Medical Research Council, our multidisciplinary research team led by Professor Ben Mathews surveyed 8503 Australians aged 16 years and over, to ascertain detailed information on their experiences of child maltreatment.

Key findings from this landmark study are presented in six articles. Haslam and colleagues4 describe the study methods. A shortcoming of previous child maltreatment research has been the non-standardised and unreliable way in which experiences are assessed. In the ACMS, child maltreatment was assessed using the Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire-R2 Adapted Version (Australian Child Maltreatment Study). To accurately assess experiences of child maltreatment, comprehensive methods were used to adapt the original Juvenile Victimisation Questionnaire5 to precisely capture a broad range of maltreatment experiences. Rigorous protocols were established to support the safety and welfare of participants and interviewers.4 The sample was representative of the national population and included an oversample of 3500 Australians aged 16-24 years...

Language: en

Keywords

Mental disorders; Child abuse; Child health; Child welfare