The federal health portfolio has conducted surveillance on child maltreatment as a public health issue since the 1990s. The Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) is now releasing the Child Maltreatment Indicator Framework, to take its place alongside other PHAC frameworks, such as the Suicide Surveillance Indicator Framework. Based on a scoping review of existing reviews and meta-analyses, this Framework, along with the online interactive data tool, presents child maltreatment outcome indicators and risk and protective factors at the individual, family, community and societal levels, disaggregated by sex, age and other sociodemographic variables. This Framework will function as a valuable resource pertaining to an issue that affects at least one in three Canadian adults.
Le portefeuille de la santé du gouvernement du Canada effectue la surveillance de la violence envers les enfants en tant que problème de santé publique depuis les années 1990. L’Agence de la santé publique du Canada (ASPC) publie aujourd’hui le Cadre d’indicateurs de la maltraitance envers les enfants, qui prend place aux côtés d’autres cadres publiés par l’ASPC, comme le Cadre d’indicateurs de surveillance du suicide. Fondé sur un examen de la portée de revues de la littérature et de méta-analyses, ce cadre, avec l’outil interactif de données en ligne, présente des indicateurs de résultats et des facteurs de risque et de protection de la maltraitance envers les enfants, selon le sexe, l’âge et diverses variables sociodémographiques, aux échelles individuelle, familiale, communautaire et sociétale. Il va constituer une ressource précieuse en lien avec un problème qui affecte au moins un adulte canadien sur trois.
Keywords: child maltreatment; emotional maltreatment; exposure to intimate partner violence; neglect; physical abuse; sexual abuse.
The Child Maltreatment Surveillance Indicator Framework complements other indicator frameworks released by the Public Health Agency of Canada and presents available data on child maltreatment outcomes and risk and protective factors at the individual, family, community and societal level. One-third (34.1%) of the Canadian population aged 15 years and older have experienced at least one type of childhood maltreatment. Physical abuse was experienced most often (27.4%), followed by exposure to intimate partner violence (10.6%) and sexual abuse (8.1%). Factors such as parental mental illness, substance use and past experience of family violence can put children at higher risk of child maltreatment.