HJAR Sep/Oct 2020

46 SEP / OCT 2020 I  HEALTHCARE JOURNAL OF ARKANSAS CHILDREN’S HEALTH COLUMN CHILDREN’S HEALTH Child Maltreatment and COVID-19 THESE ARE also three factors that are known to increase risk for child maltreatment. While we are struggling to contain a novel virus, which we know to be a threat to our health and lives, it is also crucial to keep an eye on how social distancing, stress, and job loss may be affecting some of our most vulnerable children. Financial insecurity and poverty have long been known to be risk factors for abuse and neglect, and we have had the unfortunate opportunity to see how a prior economic recession can increase risk of abuse. Several studies examining the rates of abuse and parent behaviors during the great recession of 2007– 2009 demonstrated increased risk for physical abuse. A study published in 2011 demonstrated an overall rate of abusive head trauma among infants increasing from 8.9 per 100,000 before the recession to 14.7 per 100,000 after the recession (Berger R, 2011). Another study published in 2013 demonstrated that low levels of consumer confidence were associated with increased levels of high frequency spanking (Brooks-Gunn J, 2013), and a study published in 2016 demonstrated that the great recession and economic uncertainty increased risk for child abuse (SchneiderW, 2016). Although the previous recession is not directly comparable to the effects of the current COVID pandemic, it can help illustrate how economic hardship impacts child maltreatment, and the data is not encouraging. In addition to the current pandemic- Economic hardship, social isolation, and family stress—these are issues that are all too common during an unprecedented global pandemic, economic recession, and political unrest.