Child abuse reporting in British Columbia : An investigation of psychologists and teachers
Abstract
Child abuse and neglect continue to be a serious social and public health problem. Despite professionals' legal mandate to report suspected child abuse, compliance with these laws is far from complete. To date, there have been no published studies of psychologists' and teachers' reporting practices in Canada. In an effort to better understand the factors influencing child abuse reporting, this study examined professionals' knowledge of, compliance with, and opinions of British Columbia's child abuse reporting law. In addition, participants responded to controlled vignettes that manipulated the type of child abuse (i.e., physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, and neglect). A total of 397 (52%response rate) registered psychologists and teachers completed and returned a survey addressing these issues. Results showed that psychologists have a higher level of knowledge of reporting laws than teachers do: however, level of knowledge of the law did not appear to influence reporting behavior. Intention to report differed as a function of type of abuse, with the sexual abuse vignette being most likely to be reported, and the emotional abuse vignette being least likely to be reported. Professionals who tended not to report past suspected abuse were less likely to report the vignettes of physical and emotional abuse than professionals who consistently reported these types of child maltreatment. Degree of certainty that abuse was occurring accounted for a substantial amount of the variance in reporting intention, whereas personal opinions about the reporting law and system made a modest contribution in predicting reporting behavior. The results are discussed in terms of the implicit policy issues that arose in the research. (Author Abstract)
Description
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Article
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Keywords
child abuse, mandatory reporting, Legal Issues, compliance, research, International Resources, Canada
Citation
Beck, Kirk A. (1993). Child abuse reporting in British Columbia : an investigation of psychologists and teachers (Masters thesis). Simon Fraser University.