Landmark Child Maltreatment Study
We are excited to announce the launch of a landmark national study. It’s called the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS). The study findings https://www.acms.au/ were published on Monday 3rd April, with an official launch on the 4th. The project was led by Professor Ben Mathews at the Queensland University of Technology, and the team includes 9 leading investigators from across Australia, the United Kingdom and the USA. The findings are extensive and have been published in seven articles in an open access Special Edition of the Medical Journal of Australia.
The study has generated the first reliable evidence of just how common the 5 different forms of child maltreatment are in the Australian population. This is not a study for study’s sake but one in which the team has been committed to influencing policy and practice to help prevent child maltreatment, reduce its occurrence, and intervene early.
What did the study explore?
The ACMS surveyed 8,500 randomly selected Australians aged 16 and over to identify the percentage who had been exposed to each of the five types of child abuse and neglect – physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence. This is the first study in Australia to collect this important information.
It identified that 62.2% of Australians aged 16 and over had experienced one or more types of the following:
– neglect – 8.9%;
– sexual abuse – 28.5%;
– emotional abuse – 30.9%;
– physical abuse – 32.0%; and
– exposure to domestic violence – 39.6%
Rather than these forms of maltreatment occurring in isolation the study identified how common it is to experience more than one individual maltreatment type. For many in the survivor community this is not surprising, but having the data validate people’s experiences is a critical step in informing policy and practice. In fact, the study identified that Australian children are more likely to experience more than one type of maltreatment (39.4%) than a single type (22.8%).
As regards gender, child maltreatment is experienced by children of all genders. While women were more likely to report more than one form of maltreatment in childhood (43.2%) than men (34.9%), the likelihood for gender-diverse participants was highest at 66.1%.
The study also validated findings of prior research including the well-known Adverse Childhood Experiences Study identifying that each of the following factors doubled the likelihood of experiencing multiple forms of child maltreatment:
– in situations in which parents had separated or divorced;
– living with someone who was mentally ill, suicidal or severely depressed;
– living with someone who misused alcohol or drugs; and
– when the family was struggling economically.
This study has major implications for prevention and early intervention efforts but additionally, it explored impacts on people who had been maltreated as young people and adults.
It identified that people who were maltreated as a child are more likely to have poor long-term health and social outcomes, and that many people maltreated as children engage in ‘health risk behaviours’. These ‘health risk behaviours’ often start as a young person but frequently continue for decades. We can understand ‘health risk behaviours’ as ‘coping strategies’ adopted to try to minimise distress or respond to the numbing of emotions. Coping strategies themselves can have major health and life consequences, but need to be understood in the context of the complex trauma experienced i.e. repeated often ongoing and extreme experiences of violence, abuse and neglect.
The study also confirmed that child maltreatment was associated with a greater lifetime risk of a range of physical health and mental health issues including cardiovascular, respiratory and genitourinary diseases; depression and anxiety; post-traumatic stress disorder; substance misuse disorders; and self-harm and suicide. These findings again validate previous research and our understanding of complex trauma more broadly.
In addition, the study surveyed people’s health care use in the prior 12 months and established that people maltreated as children have 2.4 x more likely to be admitted to a mental health hospital; 2.4 x more likely to have seen a psychologist or psychiatrist; 2.4 times as likely to have seen a GP 6 times or more.
These findings confirm prior understandings of the costs of unresolved complex trauma from childhood but we do know that with the right support people can and do recover from even early trauma, but it is about having access to trauma-informed services as and when they are needed, for as long as they are needed.
Why is this study so important?
It is the first study to collect reliable data on how many Australians experience abuse and neglect. Up till now, estimates have been based on child protection data which substantially underestimates the extent of the problem meaning that the true costs have not been properly understood or responded to.
Accurate data will help us see what needs to change in policy and practice to better protect Australian children, intervene early as needed and respond actively to the needs of adult survivors of complex trauma. The right services at the right time can support people to heal and recover intervening in the long-term negative impacts on people’s health and wellbeing and potentially saving governments billions of dollars.
To find out more or sign up for updates go to https://www.acms.au/
