The Generational Context of Child Maltreatment. Children's Perceptions of Physical and Emotional Abuse

Ayelet Noam-Rosenthal (The Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Haruv Institute)

 

Abstract
Child maltreatment (CM) is studied mainly from adults' perspectives, mostly-- professionals from Western countries. Even when children participated in the research, the emphasis was on children as victims in epidemiological studies or clinical trials seeking to learn about risk factors and the consequences of CM. The present research is on the seamline of three fields of knowledge: child maltreatment, the new sociology of childhood, and child participation. It aims to bring children's voices into the discourse on the definition of physical and emotional abuse and is based on the premise that children as a social group play an important role in shaping the discourse on a social problem directly related to them.

This study examines how children, ages 10-12, define and perceive physical and emotional maltreatment by a parent. It focuses on the similarities and differences between children's perceptions concerning behaviors perceived as physical and/or emotional abuse and currently accepted definitions and on differences among children by gender, nationality, economic deprivation, and socio-economic characteristics of their area of residence.

The speaker
Dr Ayelet Noam-Rosenthal is a lecturer at the faculty of behavioral science at Hadassah Academic College, Jerusalem, and The Hebrew University of Jerusalem. She is also the director of early childhood programs at the Haruv Institute. In December 2022, she is a Fellow at the Forschungskolleg Humanwissenschaften, on the invitation of Sabine Andresen, Professor of Social Pedagogy and Family Research at Goethe University and Goethe Fellow at the Forschungskolleg.