Rates of child abuse appear to have fallen in 2020. Nevertheless, some experts, including physicians, have offered their opinions that child abuse must be on the rise because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
…The total number of child abuse reports to state child welfare agencies plummeted up to 70% during the pandemic.2 Decreased monitoring by educators due to school closures cannot explain the full decline: National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System data showed that educators made 21% of reports and childcare professionals, 0.7% of reports in 2019…Further, if the dip in reports resulted from the loss of monitoring of schoolchildren, we would not expect to see a corresponding decline in cases that required medical attention. In fact, as shown in the Figure, Swedo and colleagues2 at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported a decline in the number of ED visits for suspected child abuse and neglect. The number of children hospitalized following ED visits for child abuse and neglect remained relatively constant.
…We want to conclude with our own observations, from an admittedly nonrandom sample of adults. Many professionals worry about increased child abuse due to the pandemic. At the same time, they tell heartwarming stories about bonding with their own children.