‘From their own words’: A co‐produced study interpreting children and young people&apos;s experiences of emotional abuse and neglect expressed in anonymous, online peer‐peer message forums

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Abstract

This naturalistic study researched online help‐seeking conversations between children and young people (CYP) experiencing emotional abuse and/or neglect and their peers. We believe this is the first study internationally to perform such research. Engagement with anonymous, online communities potentially offer children a source of knowledge and a platform to express and understand their experiences with peers on their own terms, using their own words. This study, co‐produced with 10 young co‐researchers (YCoR) (aged 14–18 years), aimed to explore the experiences, psychological characteristics and interactions of CYP engaging with an online peer‐peer message board service to explore theoretical and methodological approaches to examine such ‘real world’ data and inform service evaluation. Incorporating contextualised interpretations by the YCoR, a phenomenological approach explored how the experiences of abuse were constructed and questioned by CYP in online texts, and what motivates help‐seeking. Findings detail the context of CYPs emotionally abusive or neglectful experiences, their language, disclosed mental health challenges, explicit and inferred help‐seeking motivations. The co‐produced methodology facilitated a nuanced interpretation of CYPs' experiences to convey the impacts of emotional abuse and neglect disclosed in this anonymous environment. Validation with YCoR with diverse experiences would facilitate further translation of findings.

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The effect of multiple adverse childhood experiences on health: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Mark Bellis, Katherine A Hardcastle, Dinesh Sethi … (2017)

A growing body of research identifies the harmful effects that adverse childhood experiences (ACEs; occurring during childhood or adolescence; eg, child maltreatment or exposure to domestic violence) have on health throughout life. Studies have quantified such effects for individual ACEs. However, ACEs frequently co-occur and no synthesis of findings from studies measuring the effect of multiple ACE types has been done.

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Burden and consequences of child maltreatment in high-income countries.

Ruth Gilbert, Cathy Spatz Widom, Kevin Browne … (2009)

Child maltreatment remains a major public-health and social-welfare problem in high-income countries. Every year, about 4-16% of children are physically abused and one in ten is neglected or psychologically abused. During childhood, between 5% and 10% of girls and up to 5% of boys are exposed to penetrative sexual abuse, and up to three times this number are exposed to any type of sexual abuse. However, official rates for substantiated child maltreatment indicate less than a tenth of this burden. Exposure to multiple types and repeated episodes of maltreatment is associated with increased risks of severe maltreatment and psychological consequences. Child maltreatment substantially contributes to child mortality and morbidity and has longlasting effects on mental health, drug and alcohol misuse (especially in girls), risky sexual behaviour, obesity, and criminal behaviour, which persist into adulthood. Neglect is at least as damaging as physical or sexual abuse in the long term but has received the least scientific and public attention. The high burden and serious and long-term consequences of child maltreatment warrant increased investment in preventive and therapeutic strategies from early childhood.