ABSTRACT
Child neglect is an act of omission. Parents or caregivers are not doing something that they should be doing for their children. Neglect can be thought of as the failure to meet the minimum requirements for care; it is not the failure to provide ideal care. This chapter begins by reviewing the definitions of neglect that can be found in state laws as well as identifying subtypes of neglect, including physical neglect, emotional neglect, medical neglect, mental health neglect, and educational neglect. Because it can be challenging to assess for neglect, a section is devoted to tools to help determine if children are being neglected. Next, statistics about the incidence of child neglect in the United States are presented. The remainder of the chapter deals with the consequences of neglect which is broken up according to age groups because the impact of neglecting an infant is dramatically different than the effect of neglecting an adolescent. The chapter ends with a discussion of the intergenerational transmission of neglect.
