Child Neglect

What causes parents to neglect their children? There are several different factors that contribute to the incidence of neglect. There are some situations in which one risk factor is present in a home where neglect is occurring. Still other families may have several risk factors at play and yet no neglect is occurring in the home. As was mentioned before, a complex interplay of personal, social, and economic factors leads to conditions in which parents abdicate responsibility for their children. These may include:

Poverty, especially when it is combined with other risk factors

Community characteristics like high crime neighborhoods, dangerous housing, social isolation, low academic achievement, high juvenile arrest and teen birth rates

Lack of social support, small social networks, distrust of available support

Family factors such as communication problems, chaos, lack of emotional closeness, less empathy and openness, domestic violence, and single-parenting

Parental factors such as substance abuse, personality and developmental problems, lack of problem solving skills, unemployment, lack of education, prior involvement with DCFS

Child factors such as in utero drug or alcohol exposure, prematurity, being under the age of 3, difficult temperament or behavior, special needs or disabilities, and antisocial peer groups

Many of the factors listed above result from an ignorance of basic child rearing skills and of support systems that can provide assistance when conditions erode in the home. They are not part of a systematic pattern of intentional neglect. If a parent was raised in a disorganized, chaotic home, he or she is likely to parent the same way in the absence of healthier alternatives. These parents may have no conception of what the hard limits are between safe and dangerous practices or even that how they parent is detrimental to their children. Because they don’t know where to turn, such parents may also have a tendency to minimize the severity of what is happening in the home. Perhaps they are reluctant to make a call for help because they believe they are placing the custody of their children in jeopardy.