Children who are abused and neglected at home are more likely than their peers to do badly at school, to have behaviour problems and to become victims of bullying, according to a report.
The first British overview of research on the relationship between how children are treated at home and how they fare at school proves that abuse has a "profound effect" on children’s performance in all aspects of school life, its authors say.
The study, published by the NSPCC, includes the finding that maltreatment in the first five years of life almost triples a child’s likelihood of having multiple physiological, behavioural and academic problems at school.
Children with special educational needs are more than seven times more likely than their classmates to suffer physical abuse and have almost the same chance of being neglected, according to the research.
The study also says that children who have spent a year or more in care, and are more likely than their peers to have suffered maltreatment, are more likely to fail their GCSEs; 8% of youngsters in care achieve five good GCSEs, compared with a national average of more than 50%.
Although it is impossible to gauge precisely the numbers of children suffering abuse, often without either their school authorities or other services knowing the truth of their circumstances, one study found one in six young British adults reported at least one serious abusive incident in their childhoods.
The report calls on schools to address pupils’ problems "with a careful eye to the possibility of there being problems at home", and suggests that this approach could lead to early identification of any abuse.
英國全國防止虐待兒童協(xié)會最近公布的一項研究報告顯示，對于那些在家中總是受到虐待且處于被忽視地位的孩子們來說，其學習成績很有可能會落后于同學們，舉止異常并成為恃強凌弱者的犧牲品。
據(jù)英國《衛(wèi)報》5月25日報道，該研究報告的作者表示，這是在英國歷史上首次進行的關(guān)于孩子在家庭中的處境與其在學校里的表現(xiàn)之間關(guān)系的全面研究。該項研究證明了來自家庭的虐待會對孩子學校生活的各個方面產(chǎn)生“深遠的影響”。
該報告說，一個孩子在其人生頭5年里所受到的粗暴對待會使他(她)日后在學校中產(chǎn)生諸多生理、行為及學業(yè)方面問題的概率幾乎提高到3倍。
根據(jù)此項研究的結(jié)果，那些受到肉體虐待或被忽視的孩子需要接受特殊教育的可能性比其同班同學要高出7倍有余。
該研究報告還指出，那些在1年及1年以上的時間內(nèi)處于憂慮狀態(tài)而且比同齡人更容易受到虐待的孩子，其無法通過英國中學普通畢業(yè)證書考試(GCSE)的可能性也會相應增加;在整天憂心忡忡的青少年中只有8%的人可以在GCSE考試中得到5個優(yōu)，而全英國這一指標的平均值超過了50%。
盡管目前尚無法準確測算出受虐待孩子的人數(shù)，無論是學校還是其它社會服務機構(gòu)都無法弄清他們所處的真實環(huán)境，但有一項研究發(fā)現(xiàn)，在較為年輕的英國成年人中有六分之一的人表示他們在自己的青少年時期至少經(jīng)歷過一次較為嚴重的虐待事件。
該研究報告呼吁學校，應將孩子在學校里所表現(xiàn)出的種種問題與其在家中遇到諸多問題的可能性結(jié)合起來，通過此種方法可以使人們盡早發(fā)現(xiàn)孩子所遭受的任何虐待。