Facts About Abuse & Maltreatment

Children who are exposed to physical violence in the home tend to exhibit higher rates of depression, worry and frustration (Family Violence in Canada, 2001).

Violence in the family has severe emotional impact on children and is a form of emotional maltreatment (Tower, 1996).

A study by Health Canada indicated that a child's exposure to family violence was the most common form of emotional maltreatment - accounting for well over half of the substantiated cases.

Emotional maltreatment harms a child's sense of self and could cause serious behavioural cognitive, emotional or mental disorders. It's typically a difficult form of maltreatment to define because it does not usually leave any physical evidence like bruises. However, its often severe effects may not become apparent until later in the child's development.

Emotional maltreatment, although difficult to detect, is more commonly investigated than sexual abuse cases in Canada and is the most often substantiated of all types of maltreatment (other forms of maltreatment include physical and sexual abuse and neglect).

Exposed to family violence (definition) - a child has been a witness to or involved with family violence within his or her home. This includes seeing, hearing, seeing, the after effects and being placed in the middle of conflicts.

In Canada, it is estimated that 800,000 children are exposed to woman abuse each year (Jaffe, Poisson, October 1999)

Children under the age of 15 were harmed or threatened in about 10% of spousal assaults against women. Family Violence in Canada: A Statistical Profile 2004. Statistics Canada  (Adobe PDF)