OBJECTIVES: Reviews of violence against children in disaster settings focus on armed conflict. Little is understood about natural disasters which has implications in planning humanitarian response. We examined the magnitude and direction of the association between exposure to natural disasters and physical, emotional, and sexual violence against children, and assessed the quality of the evidence. METHODS: We searched 15 health and social science databases from first record until May 16, 2018. Publications describing all types of quantitative study design were eligible for inclusion. We presented study characteristics and quality in a narrative form and generated pooled estimates using a three-level random effects model. We evaluated Cochrane's Q with p-values below 0.10 and radial plots to assess heterogeneity. Planned subgroup analyses explored differential results by violence form, study design, and analysis method. RESULTS: 11 publications met inclusion criteria. The majority were cross-sectional studies examining physical or sexual violence in the United States. We found no evidence of a consistent association or directional influence between natural disasters and violence against children. Combined categorical violence outcomes had substantial heterogeneity [Q (df = 66) = 252.83, p < 0.001]. Subgroups without evidence of heterogeneity had confidence intervals that included a possible null effect. Our findings were mainly limited by inconsistencies in operational definitions of violence, a lack of representative sampling, and unclear establishment of temporal order between natural disaster exposure and violence outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Based on the available evidence, we cannot confidently conclude that natural disasters increase the level or severity of violence against children above non-disaster settings, however heterogeneity and study quality hamper our ability to draw firm conclusions. More nuanced and rigorous research is needed to inform practice and policy as natural disasters increasingly affect human populations.
Ilan Cerna-Turoff, Hanna-Tina Fischer, Susannah Mayhew et al.
Violence against children is a subject of wide-ranging discussion, which has been gradually taking up more space over the years both in academia and in the media. This qualitative study deals with a literature review of some of the most recurrent forms of violence experienced in childhood: sexual exploitation and abuse, psychological violence, neglect and physical violence. In continuity, we present some possible causes of violence against children, and in conclusion, we point out the consequences of the abuse endured while in childhood. These situations of family violence perpetrated during childhood create afflictions in children and are the origin of childhood and teenage psychopathologies which often remain throughout adult life. Children become psychically ill due to the violence they suffer or witness within the family, seeing as what should be their safe space becomes the captivity in which they must live with the tormentors whom they support, since they are children.
Marcus Levi Lopes Barbosa, Denise Regina Quaresma da Silva, Fernanda da Silva Amaral
ABSTRACT: Gun violence against children in the United States (U.S.) is a public health crisis which violates the human rights of its victims, resulting in lasting morbidity and death. Firearm-related injury is the leading cause of death for children under eighteen years old in the U.S. We use the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, and UN Sustainable Development Goals to analyze gun violence against children in the U.S. from a human rights perspective. We recommend to 1) ratify the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, establishing a framework for comprehensive gun law reform, 2) partner with the UN Special Representative for the Secretary-General on Violence Against Children to draft policy, 3) increase gun violence research funding, and 4) implement evidence-based community violence prevention programs.
Mark T. Yost, Kasey Fernandez, Etoile Nelson et al.
INTRODUCTION: Globally 1 billion children are exposed to violence every year. The Violence Against Children Surveys (VACS) are nationally representative surveys of males and females ages 13-24 that are intended to measure the burden of sexual, physical and emotional violence experienced in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood. It is important to document the methodological approach and design of the VACS to better understand the national estimates that are produced in each country, which are used to drive violence prevention efforts. METHODS: This study describes the surveys' target population, sampling design, statistical considerations, data collection process, priority violence indicators and data dissemination. RESULTS: Twenty-four national household surveys have been completed or are being planned in countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. The sample sizes range from 891 to 7912 among females (72%-98% response rate) and 803-2717 among males (66%-98% response rate). Two face-to-face interviews are conducted: a Household and an Individual Questionnaire. A standard set of core priority indicators are generated for each country that range from prevalence of different types of violence, contexts, risk and protective factors, and health consequences. Results are disseminated through various platforms to expand the reach and impact of the survey results. CONCLUSION: Data obtained through VACS can inform development and implementation of effective prevention strategies and improve health service provision for all who experience violence. VACS serves as a standardised tool to inform and drive prevention through high-quality, comprehensive data.
Kimberly H. Nguyen, Howard C. Kress, Andrés Villaveces et al.
OBJECTIVE: Social isolation is currently identified as the best way to prevent the infection by the new coronavirus. However, for some social groups, such as children and adolescents, this measure carries a contradiction: the home, which should be the safest place for them, is also a frequent environment of a sad aggravation: domestic violence. This study aims to evaluate the notifications of interpersonal/self-inflicted violence available in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases in the State of Santa Catarina (southern Brazil), for the juvenile age group, before and during the new coronavirus pandemics. METHODS: Cross-sectional, descriptive study of violence against children and adolescents (from 0 to 19 years) notified by health professionals by completing and entering the occurrence in the Information System for Notifiable Diseases of the State of Santa Catarina in 11 weeks in which the social isolation measure was instituted as mandatory, comparing with the same period before this measure. RESULTS: During the study period, 136 municipalities in Santa Catarina made 1,851 notifications. There was a decrease of 55.3% of them in the isolation period, and the difficulties encountered in seeking protection and assistance institutions were listed. CONCLUSIONS: The society needs to be aware of possible cases of violence in the children and adolescent population. It is important to provide accessible, effective, and safe ways for complaints and notifications, as well as a quick response to the cases, aiming at protecting victims and minimizing damages to prevent the perpetuation of the violence.
Vanessa Borges Platt, Jucélia Maria Guedert, Elza Berger Salema Coelho
OBJECTIVE: present and discuss the potential use of the concept of vulnerability for the development of practices to address violence against children. METHOD: this is a theoretical study that presents the characteristics of the phenomenon of violence against children, to which the concept of vulnerability is applied. RESULTS: proposal of a framework for the analysis of violence against children in the perspective of vulnerability, creating individual and collective dimensions. Violence against children, when analyzed in the perspective of this concept, broadens the understanding of this phenomenon, as it exposes aspects and conditions from outside the family that are co-responsible for the occurrence of this phenomenon. CONCLUSION: developing studies to identify the vulnerability of children to violence is essential for the development of practices to address this issue.
Paula Hino, Renata Ferreira Takahashi, Lúcia Yasuko Izumi Nichiata et al.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the reasons for the lack of priority given to addressing violence against children, and to identify the challenges that proponents must address to improve prioritization of this issue. METHODS: We reviewed relevant literature to identify experts to interview. We carried out a thematic analysis of the literature and interview transcripts. We iteratively developed data coding on the many characteristics of violence against children, on the framing of the issue by proponents, and on the problem of governance - that is, how proponents organize themselves for collective action. FINDINGS: The analysis of our data sources reveals many obstacles for global prioritization of addressing violence against children, including the forms of violence considered, inadequate data to describe prevalence and a lack of evidence of the effectiveness of proposed solutions. There exists fundamental disagreement among proponents on the recently introduced frame of violence against children, including differences in the types of violence that should be prioritized and in the proposed solutions (e.g. prevention or remediation). On governance, competition between networks focused on specific forms of violence is hampering efforts to create strong governing institutions. CONCLUSION: Despite the complex challenges identified, proponents have made some progress in global prioritization of addressing violence against children. To improve this prioritization further, proponents must resolve framing tensions and strengthen governance mechanisms to promote shared goals, while ensuring that networks focused on particular forms of violence are able to maintain their distinct identities.
Abstract In Brazil, legal and political discussions on childhood and adolescence are usually guided by the ideal of pure, innocent, and vulnerable girlhood. This construction has historically served to both censor the exercise of child and adolescent sexual agency and legitimise the exclusion of unruly girls who do not correspond to the envisioned profile deemed worthy of protection. That is the case for Brazilian young wives, a large but invisible group of girls continuously neglected by child protection discourses, services, and policies in the country. This paper aims to introduce and explore the current scenario of child marriage in Brazil by overviewing the national legal norms surrounding the practice, summarizing two relevant locally produced qualitative pieces of research on the subject, carried out by Instituto Promundo and Plan International Brasil, analysing available national quantitative data on the extent and key characteristics of early marriage, specifically, IBGE’s 2010 Demographic Census and the 2021 Civil Registry Statistics, and problematising what is understood as young wives’ agency. Its main proposition is that a more nuanced, dynamic, and critical understanding of children’s agency is needed for truly comprehending the practice of child marriage in Brazil and developing public services and policies that both prevent it and aid young wives in their daily lives.
Brazil is one of the top contributors of girl child marriages in the world and one of the United Nations' members that committed to end child marriage by 2030 as part of the Sustainable Development Goals. Child marriage is an indicator of gender inequality associated with poor health outcomes. However, the perinatal epidemiology of minor mothers (<18 years) according to marital status has been insufficiently studied. We used 23,163,209 birth registrations (2011-2018) to describe the sociodemographic distribution of births to minor mothers. The association between adverse outcomes and marital status and maternal age was restricted to 7,953,739 births of mothers aged ≤15, 16-17, 18-19, 20-24 years. Multinomial logistic models were used for very (24-31 weeks) and moderately preterm birth (32-36 weeks), and severe (<3rd percentile) and moderately small-for-gestational age (SGA) (3rd to <10th percentile). Logistic models were used for binary outcomes. The proportion of births to minor mothers in the study period was 8.9%, composed of those of single (6.1%), common-law (2.4%) and married girls (0.4%). Births to minor mothers decreased over time (p-value <0.001), were more common in the North Region (13.2%) and among Indigenous (17.4%). Very and moderately preterm birth increased with decreasing age but within each age group, rates were highest among single, followed by common-law and lowest among married mothers. A similar pattern was observed for SGA, low Apgar and late prenatal care initiation. Repeat birth and low age-appropriate education were less common among married compared to single mothers in all age groups, except among ≤15-year-olds [Adjusted Odds Ratio (AOR): 2.56; 95% Confidence Interval (95%CI): 2.40, 2.74 and AOR: 1.30; 95%CI: 1.03, 1.64, respectively]. The association between perinatal indicators and marital status among adolescents is strongly modified by decreasing maternal age. Marital status is relevant for the understanding of early pregnancies.
Marcelo Luis Urquia, Rosângela Fernandes Lucena Batista, Viviane Cunha Cardoso et al.
Abstract This paper conducts a large, narrative review of interventions that might plausibly (a) increase educational attainment, (b) delay childbearing, and/or (c) delay marriage for adolescent girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Using 108 interventions from 78 studies, predominantly in LMICs, the paper summarizes the performance of 15 categories of interventions in improving these outcomes. Transfer programs emerge as broadly effective in increasing educational attainment but their effects on delaying fertility and marriage remain mixed and dependent on context. Construction of schools in underserved areas and the provision of information on returns to schooling and academic performance also increase schooling. No category of interventions is found to be categorically effective in delaying pregnancies and reducing child marriages among adolescent girls. While targeted provision of sexual and reproductive health services, including vouchers and subsidies for family planning, and increasing job opportunities for women seem promising, more research is needed to evaluate the longer-term effects of such interventions. We propose that future studies should aim to measure short-term outcomes that can form good surrogates for long-term welfare gains and should collect detailed cost information.
