Severity & Chronicity

Our tool focuses on how severe and chronic the neglect is. These are both very important features of child neglect:

In a nutshell guide:

It is important to consider severity and chronicity, as they are key features of child neglect. They should be assessed alongside each other.
Severity: is essentially about the likelihood and seriousness of harm. The greater the likelihood and seriousness of harm, the more severe the neglect is.
Severity: neglect can be characterized as mild, moderate or severe. The definitions of these can be found in the tool itself.
Chronicity: Refers to how longstanding the neglect is. Chronic neglect carries on over a period of time or keeps recurring over a period of time.
Chronicity: It is important to remember that some neglect experiences are usually only worrisome when they occur repeatedly (e.g., poor hygiene or sanitation). Families can sometimes experience chronic neglect in part because of a lack of focused and effective professional support.

Charactirising child neglect

In general terms, child neglect can be characterized as mild, moderate or severe. However, it is very important to state that assessment of neglect is not this simple, and neglect must be fully assessed in each individual case. Severity should be assessed alongside how chronic the neglect is, not separately. The history of the family and any identified pre-existing patters of neglect should be taken into consideration. A single incident of neglect might be assessed as moderate, but a cumulation of these incidents may lead to severe neglect. Severity, chronicity, risk and protective factors vary for each child and family and influence the impacts of neglect on the child.

Severity is viewed in terms of the likelihood and seriousness of harm. A severe form of neglect is one that results in serious harm, actual or potential. And, the greater the likelihood of such harm, the more severe is the neglect. Frequency, or number of incidents, can be helpful in documenting an ongoing pattern.

Mild neglect:

Mild neglect would not warrant intervention from children’s services, but community-based support may be appropriate. An example of mild neglect would be sometimes not providing stimulating activities in the home for a young child.

Moderate neglect:

Moderate neglect can be characterised by a degree of harm to the child. An example of moderate neglect would be a child being consistently inappropriately dressed for the weather conditions. A child in need response may be appropriate, alongside community-based intervention.

Severe neglect:

Severe neglect can be characterised by significant or long-term harm having occurred or being assessed as likely to occur. It will likely involve persistent or acute neglect of a child’s needs. For example, a child’s physical needs consistently going unmet. Severe neglect is likely to come to the attention of children’s services, and to involve a child protection plan.

Chronicity of neglect:

Chronicity of neglect refers to how longstanding the neglect is. A pattern of needs not being met over time, is a particularly important dimension for neglect. So, neglect that carries on over a period of time or keeps recurring over a period of time. Some experiences of neglect are usually only concerning when they occur repeatedly (e.g., poor hygiene). Thus, assessing signs of chronicity is important when determining whether a particular experience constitutes neglect. Duration of children’s services involvement, or the time between the first and most recent reports, may be useful to consider. Focused and holistic assessment is essential. Families can sometimes experience chronic neglect in part because of an absence of proactive and preventative practice, and because services do not effectively address underlying issues and causes of the neglect.

Developmental timing

is important to consider because the age and developmental stage of the child are closely linked to what a child’s basic needs are, as well as the potential consequences of the neglect.

Adapted from Horwath (2013) Child Neglect: A Guide for Prevention, Assessment, and Intervention & Proctor, L. & Dubowitz, H. (2014). Child Neglect: Challenges and Controversies. In: Korbin, J., Krugman, R. (eds) Handbook of Child Maltreatment. Child Maltreatment, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. View Reference Here.

In a nutshell guide:

Charactirising child neglect

Mild neglect:

Moderate neglect:

Severe neglect:

Chronicity of neglect:

Developmental timing