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Prevalence of Child Maltreatment in Israel: A National Epidemiological Study

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Abstract

The current study is based on data collected from Jewish and Arab 6th, 8th and 10th grade students (age range 12-17) within the Israeli national school system (N = 12,035). Data collection for the study utilized two complementary instruments: the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ). Study results revealed that the lifetime prevalence of child maltreatment in contemporary Israeli society is within the range of estimates from other countries. However, contrary to others, Israeli boys reported higher rates of abuse, including sexual abuse, compared to girls. Additionally, Arab compared to Jewish children and youth reported higher rates of all types of abuse. The need for widely accepted, uniform definitions of the various child maltreatment types, a standardized methodology of data collection, and regularly updated national and international data bases is discussed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The Emili Sagol Creative Arts Therapies Research Center, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Rachel Lev-Wiesel, Maya First & Ruth Gottfried

  2. The Center for the Study of Society, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    Zvi Eisikovits

  3. The Haruv Institute, Jerusalem, Israel

    Ruth Gottfried

  4. School of Social Work, Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA

    Ruth Gottfried

  5. School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Haifa, Israel

    David Mehlhausen

Authors
  1. Rachel Lev-Wiesel
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  2. Zvi Eisikovits
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  3. Maya First
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  4. Ruth Gottfried
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  5. David Mehlhausen
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rachel Lev-Wiesel.

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Funding

This research study was funded by Traiana Technologies Ltd.

Conflict of Interest

RLW declares that she has no conflict of interest. ZE declares that he has no conflict of interest. MF declares that she has no conflict of interest. RG declares that she has no conflict of interest. DM declares that he has no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in this study involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the University of Haifa, the Israeli the Ministry of Education Chief Scientist research committee, and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in this study and their parents

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Lev-Wiesel, R., Eisikovits, Z., First, M. et al. Prevalence of Child Maltreatment in Israel: A National Epidemiological Study. Journ Child Adol Trauma 11, 141–150 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-016-0118-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40653-016-0118-8

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