ATLANTA (AP) — About 1 in 50 infants in the U.S. are victims of nonfatal child neglect or abuse, according to the first national study of the problem in that age group.
The study focused on children younger than 1, and found nearly a third were one week old or younger when the abuse or neglect occurred.
Most of the cases involved neglect, and may in part reflect families without health insurance that are not getting adequate care for their children, said David Finkelhor, who is familiar with the data but was not involved in the study.
“It’s not primarily kids being hit, but parents showing signs of not being able to really care for their kids,” said Mr. Finkelhor, director of the Crimes against Children Research Center at the University of New Hampshire.
The researchers counted more than 91,000 infant victims of abuse and neglect in the period Oct. 1, 2005 to Sept. 30, 2006.
The information came from a national database of cases verified by protective services agencies in 45 states, the District and Puerto Rico.
Other studies have looked at national child abuse and neglect cases, but this is thought to be the first to focus on infants, said study co-author Rebecca Leeb, an epidemiologist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The results mirror what a study in Canada found, Miss Leeb said.
The 91,000 infants were 1 year old or younger. About 30,000 of those cases were newborns ages one week or younger.
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