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Child abuse viewed through the hot‐line in Osaka, Japan
Author(s) -
KOBAYASHI MICHIKO,
NAYA YASUKO,
SUZUKI ATSUKO,
KATO YOKO,
HIRATA YOSHIKO,
GOUGH DAVID
Publication year - 1995
Publication title -
pediatrics international
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.49
H-Index - 63
eISSN - 1442-200X
pISSN - 1328-8067
DOI - 10.1111/j.1442-200x.1995.tb03312.x
Subject(s) - medicine , telephone survey , child abuse , context (archaeology) , welfare , suicide prevention , poison control , injury prevention , occupational safety and health , psychiatry , physical abuse , family medicine , medical emergency , paleontology , pathology , marketing , political science , law , business , biology
Cases of child abuse identified by a hot‐line telephone service and by a survey of health and welfare agencies are reported. Many consultations to the telephone hot‐line were from mothers concerned about maltreating their own children. In such cases, the extent of abuse was often mild to moderate, and many of those mothers were troubled about child care in the relatively segregated context of the nuclear family. In only a few cases did the callers indicate that the children's life was in danger. In the administrative survey, however, deaths occurred in 5% of the cases, and the abused children frequently had physical and psychological symptoms. There were also more frequent and more serious family problems in the administrative survey compared to the telephone consultation cases. The findings of these surveys suggest that many children and parents are suffering from child abuse in Japan, that many cases are currently not being identified by health and welfare agencies, and that a wide range of measures, from protection of severely abused children to prevention of abuse, are necessary.