What Is Parental Neglect and How Does It Affect the Child?

Parental negligence refers to the failure to meet the basic, practical, educational, and emotional needs of the child. It is a less visible form of ill-treatment applied to minors (so children under the age of 18). But it is also the most common form of ill-treatment.

Unfortunately, unlike abuse (physical, sexual, or emotional), neglect is much more difficult to detect, remaining in the family. And yet, the observed cases of parental neglect show that it has severe negative effects on the child's development (physical, educational or emotional, depending on the form of neglect).

How do we define parental neglect?

It is not easy to define the term parental negligence, practically any action or lack of action (inaction) that negatively affects the physical or psycho-emotional well-being of the child and can be classified as negligence.

For example, leaving a newborn unattended in unsafe conditions (such as in a bathtub or changing table) may be considered negligent for a few seconds; leaving a child under the age of 7 unattended and alone for a few hours can be considered negligent; leaving a child under the age of 12 unattended and alone for several days can be considered negligent.

Therefore, parental negligence refers to actions or inactions that have a high potential for risk or that even adversely affect the child. These are different depending on the age and responsibility of the child.

Neglect is observed only when there are visible negative effects when the child suffers physically or emotionally from lack of proper care for his age. It is difficult to determine exactly what proper care of a child means: children have different needs.

The negligence of the parents thus refers to the lack of adequate care of a child, intentional or not, to the non-fulfillment of his essential physical, psychological, emotional needs. One can discuss intentional neglect - parental indifference in caring for and caring for the child and unintentional neglect - lack of proper care caused by poverty, parental illness, a disorganized and aggressive family environment, lack of parental education, substance abuse.

Neglect can also be seen as an incident or as a pattern: it happens that a parent does not provide the necessary care in some situations (for example, to leave him alone without supervision for a day, because no other solution has been found). - this is a stand-alone incident and does not imply that the parents are constantly negligent;

However, it happens that the parents do not give the child the necessary care constantly, forgetting or ignoring his needs (for example, leaving him unattended at a young age every day, not taking care of his health, not paying attention to clothing and food, etc. ); it is, in the latter case, the "chronicity" of negligence, with severe and lasting negative effects on the child's development.

Forms of parental neglect:

Physical neglect - refers to the lack of practical care of the child, from the lack of a safe and comfortable shelter to the lack of basic hygiene to the lack of adequate nutrition to the lack of appropriate clothing (clothing inappropriate for age or temperature). Other forms of physical neglect include abandoning the child or expelling him or her from the home, as well as any action with a high potential for hurting the child (asking him to do dangerous work, leaving him alone in dangerous environments).

Negligence in child custody. As mentioned, in this situation it is more difficult to show exactly what constitutes negligence or not: it depends a lot on the age of the child and his responsibility, his ability to be alone and to take care of himself without being at no risk. The conditions in which the child is left unattended are also important (if he is in danger of being injured by nearby objects).

Medical malpractice - refers to failure to provide medical care or delay in providing such care. Out of ignorance, out of realizing the importance of medical care, out of lack of funds, out of extreme religious beliefs, some parents do not turn to medical services. Ignoring the need for routine check-ups and ignoring the doctor's recommendations are also forms of child neglect.

Educational negligence - refers to ignoring the need to enroll the child in school (some parents do not enroll or enroll only in primary school, after which they send the child to work). Other forms of educational neglect refer to ignoring the child's school problems, despite the warnings received from school: absenteeism, repetition, violence.

Emotional neglect - refers to the failure to meet a child's emotional needs. It is, unfortunately, the least visible form of parental neglect (it has no visible effects), but also the one that is extremely harmful to the child's development.

Forms of emotional neglect refer to the lack of attention and affection given to the child (the need for affection and protection is in the first place in the essential needs of the child); ignoring and isolating the child from others; rejection of the child; threatening the child; his exposure to domestic aggression (even if they are not directed at him); verbal violence, insulting and negative labeling of the child; allowing (or sometimes directly encouraging) dangerous behaviors, such as theft, prohibited or dangerous work, substance use (which is also a physical form of negligence).

What effects does parental neglect have on the child?

Depending on the form of negligence, the effects will be more or less visible: the child may look careless, dirty, weak or even hungry, improperly dressed (physically), may look sick, apathetic (medical), maybe uninteresting, attention and will at school and defiant or violent (educational), can be impulsive, aggressive, or on the contrary isolated, withdrawn, shy and submissive (emotional).

The neglected child often suffers from depression, adjustment and relationship difficulties, and attention difficulties; it also adopts risky behaviors (from self-aggression to rebellion to substance abuse).

Physical neglect will negatively affect a child's development in terms of health, physical and mental well-being (concrete effects can be his injury, his illness, malnutrition).

But the deepest effects are the emotional ones, which will follow him all his life: to be denied the affection of his parents, this basic need to be loved and protected, permanently affects a child. He will be a child with a negative self-image (he will think he is bad and worthless), without self-confidence, without courage and strength, without hopes and goals: a child who will adopt self-destructive behaviors.