The approach of Israeli health and mental health students toward child maltreatment

Child maltreatment is a multidisciplinary problem with legal, medical, social service, public policy, and mental health components. Therefore, it is essential to understand how members of different disciplines approach this problem. Studies are lacking on this subject in Israel. A preliminary study was conducted with 1,302 students of the four main disciplines dealing with the problem of child maltreatment: psychology, social work, education, and medicine. An instrument constructed for the purpose of this study was utilized to examine the following main areas used by professionals in determining cases of maltreatment: (a) their perception of the various situations of child maltreatment; (b) their awareness of the risk factors of child maltreatment; (c) their awareness of the signs of child maltreatment; and (d) their willingness to report various cases of maltreatment. The results indicate important areas in detecting cases of child maltreatment which students from the four disciplines may disregard. Those areas which could be strengthened in preparing future professionals for fulfilling their roles are discussed.