Loss of child well-being

Non-sexual forms of child abuse and maltreatment are difficult to define because they range on a continuous scale between forms of impairment, neglect, endangering, acute danger, etc. Methods to treat this quasi-continuous problem are required to allow for reliable and reproducible decision making in the fields between child welfare and child protection. An empirical list of 151 items on hostile-aggressive parenting has developed. We present a method by which assessments can be projected on a continuous scale of a ‘relative loss of child well-being’. As a solution for decision makers we provide threshold values and reference ranges for this loss of child wellbeing. The quantifications suggested by the present approach can support decision making at family courts and child protection agencies and the results can be used by professionals as well as by parents to comparatively evaluate own assessments of family or custody issues.