Teachers’ Responses to Child Maltreatment

Because they spend so much time with children, teachers play a key role in detecting and reporting child maltreatment, yet the limited research available suggests they tend to under-detect and under-report many forms of abuse and neglect. Drawing on a pilot evaluation of maltreatment training, this study asked experienced teachers from a large urban centre in Ontario to read case vignettes and rate how likely they were to recognize and report different types of maltreatment, and why. Teachers were most accurate at identifying and reporting sexual abuse, followed by neglect and emotional abuse. They were much less accurate with physical abuse, the only type that differed significantly from the others. Many felt the physical abuse scenario lacked convincing evidence and said they would need more information before deciding it was reportable. The authors call for more targeted training to strengthen teachers’ decision-making, particularly around physical abuse, so that more maltreated children are identified and reported to child protection.