ABSTRACT
Infancy and early childhood are often represented in the public imagination as a carefree developmental stage where the child is absorbed in play in the safe context of the parents’ protection. Statistical data and clinical experience contradict this idealized picture. Child maltreatment is more frequent in the first five years than at any other age, with more than 75 percent of child abuse fatalities occurring among children younger than age 4 and most often in the first year of life (USDHHS, 2009). Children in this age range are also more likely than older children to reside in homes with domestic violence (Fantuzzo & Fusco, 2007). The findings of exposure to interpersonal violence are not restricted to children referred for abuse or domestic violence. In a sample of 2,000 children aged 2-17 who were selected for a telephone survey through random digit dialing, 70 percent of the respondents (either the child or the parent in the case of younger children) reported at least one episode of exposure, with 64 percent of these children reporting at least one additional, different source of victimization during the same time period and a mean of 2.8 for number of victimizations. These findings suggest that a pattern of repeated interpersonal trauma exposure is significantly represented in the general population. Serious and often lethal accidents in the form of falls, burns, suffocation, choking, poisoning, and near-drownings are also more predominant during this period than at any other age (Grossman, 2000).
