Harm, or risk of harm to children and young people, can occur when stress, tiredness, lack of skills, information and support combine to make the pressures of caring for children overwhelming.
Some of the factors that can contribute to the likelihood of harm include:
The presence of one or more of these factors does not by itself prove that a child is being harmed or is at risk of harm, but it can alert you to the possibility that a child may be at risk.
Given the right skills and resources, most people who have harmed a child can learn to parent in a positive way.
Community attitudes are also a contributing factor to child abuse. There is still some acceptance in the community for the use of physical force for the purposes of discipline and punishment of children and young people.
People may not consider it any of their business, may not want to get involved or do not trust child protection authorities, and therefore do not report their concerns.
Attitudes vary across different communities and those that can inadvertently support abuse include:
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence