El maltrato en niños preescolares: estudio empírico de sus características personales y familiares

After discussing the theoretical framework of child abuse in families, our study aims to analyse the personal features and the family environment of a sample of children between 3 and 5 years old, who have reached the critical stage when it is necessary to decide whether they should be separated from their parents because of the abuse. The study also wishes to determine if there are gender differences at these ages and, if so, whether they occur at any particular age. Our methodology uses evidence from cases registered in the legal and health systems. Our subjects are children who are being investigated by the EAIA (Caring Team for Childhood and Adolescence) in Tarragona. The total number of children in the sample is 21 girls and 17 boys (N=38). The instrument used to obtain data is the Evaluation Summary of Personal Record. The process used in the study has 5 steps: first, the bibliography was reviewed; then the variables were defined, the quality of the data tested and the data analysed; and, finally, the results were discussed and interpreted. The results are structured in two sections: the descriptive results of the sample and the results obtained from contingency tables. It should be pointed out that parents do not abandon their children because of their age or because they emigrate. Rather, almost half of the parents whose children were in the study had suffered from similar abuse. Likewise, the most problematic age was 4 years old.