Child Abuse: Definition

• The term child abuse refers to the violence, maltreatment or neglect of a child in the context of a relationship of responsibility, trust or power.

• Four types of abuse and neglect have been identified as forms of child maltreatment: neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and psychological maltreatment.

• Depending on its form, context, duration, severity and other factors, abuse may affect every aspect of a child’s life and wellbeing; it may have consequences that are psychological, physical, behavioral, academic, sexual, interpersonal, self-perceptual and/or spiritual.

• The effects of abuse may appear right away, or surface at a later stage, in adolescence or adulthood particularly at moments of stress and/or times of rapid change. This entails that child abuse does not only impair an individual’s healthy development, but also the society and the economy in which it occurs.
  

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