NEGLECTED CHILDREN AS A SOCIAL PROBLEM

Abstract

This thesis deals with chronic neglect of child ren — "chronic” in the sense of continuing for a long time. The term "child” is applied to all under 16 years of age. The following pages are based on a study of 39 records of cases made available by the Hamilton Children’s Aid Society. The statistics formulated from these cases are not taken as final proof of the causality of certain factors, for several reasons. In the first place, a high correlation between two phenomena coes not necessarily indicate a causal connection. Further more, all sociological data are open to personal evaluation, and hence arc not easily interpreted. Finally, the number of cases used here is too small to produce reliable results. However, since they were all of a chronic nature, it may be considered that the statistics obtained from them may be depend able enough to indicate certain general tendencies. Statistics in regard to social conditions in the United States will be quoted in many instances. This is thought to be justified by the similarity between the American and Canadian standard of life. The same is not true of Canadian and European culture and social legislation. The first three chapters deal with general con- sidérations of the possible factors in neglect arising from social conditions outside the family. ho next two deal with conditions within the family leading to neglect. Finally, a special study is made of the importance of the conditions found there, and suggestions as to possible solutions.