UNDERSTANDING CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT: AN ECOLOGICAL APPROACH

Abstract

Child abuse and neglect has been a concern for professionals working in the field of mental health, especially in recent years. In the relevant literature, there are several approaches to understanding child abuse, identifying the risk factors that lead to abuse, and preventing child abuse. Unfortunately, these models often seem to be in conflict with each other and insufficient to understand and eliminate a complex social problem such as child abuse. According to the ecological approach, child abuse occurs as a result of the interaction of a large number of factors, not a single acting effect. This model is the most comprehensive model currently available for understanding child abuse and provides a systematic framework for conducting research and practices on abuse. In this study, the phenomenon of child abuse is evaluated within the framework of the ecological model and practical recommendations are presented to experts working in the field at the macro, mezzo and micro level to ensure the implementation of the model.

Keywords

• Child abuse
• child neglect
• ecological approach
• risk factors
• prevention

Çocuk İstismarı ve İhmalini Anlamak: Ekolojik Bir Yaklaşım

Abstract

Çocuk istismarı ve ihmali, özellikle son yıllarda ruh sağlığı alanında çalışan profesyoneller için bir endişe kaynağı olmuştur. İlgili literatürde çocuk istismarını anlamak, istismara yol açan risk faktörlerini tanımlamak ve çocuğa yönelik istismarı önlemek için çeşitli yaklaşımlar bulunmaktadır. Ne yazık ki, bu yaklaşımların genellikle çocuk istismarı gibi karmaşık bir sosyal sorunu anlamak ve ortadan kaldırmak için yetersiz kaldığı görülmektedir. Son yıllarda, çocuk istismarının etiyolojisi ve süreçlerini açıklamak üzere daha kapsamlı bir yaklaşım olan ekolojik modelin ilgili literatüre dahil edildiği dikkat çekmektedir. Ekolojik yaklaşıma göre çocuk istismarı, tek başına hareket eden bir etkinin değil, çok sayıda faktörün etkileşimi sonucunda meydana gelir. İstismara yönelik araştırma ve uygulamaları yürütmek için sistematik bir çerçeve sağlayan bu model, çocuk istismarı ve ihmalini anlamaya katkı sağlayan en kapsamlı modeldir. Bu çalışmada çocuk istismarı olgusu ekolojik model çerçevesinde değerlendirilmekte ve bu kapsamda alanda çalışan uzmanlara makro, mezo ve mikro düzeyde pratik öneriler sunulmaktadır.

Keywords

• çocuk istismarı
• çocuk ihmali
• ekolojik yaklaşım
• risk faktörleri
• önleme

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