Daryl J Higgins- BA(Hons), PhD
- Director at Australian Catholic University
Daryl J Higgins
- BA(Hons), PhD
- Director at Australian Catholic University
Analyzing data from www.acms.au looking at prevalence and impact of abuse, multi-type maltreatment and its impacts.
About
175
Publications
93,045
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Introduction
Professor Daryl Higgins is the director of the Institute of Child Protection Studies (ICPS), a nationally recognised centre of research excellence in the field of child, youth and family welfare at ACU. Professor Higgins comes to ACU from the Australian Institute of Family Studies, where as Deputy Director he led the research program, with responsibility for research projects and research communication outputs across a broad range of issues relating to families in Australia.
Current institution
Additional affiliations
February 2017 - present
Position
- Managing Director
Description
- My research focuses on public health approaches to protecting children, and child-safe organisational strategies. I have 25 years' experience researching child abuse impacts and prevention, family violence, and family functioning
February 1998 - August 2004
July 2015 - present
Position
- Honorary Principal Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Education
January 1994 - March 1999
Deakin University
Field of study
- Child maltreatment
Publications
Publications (175)
Objectives
To estimate the prevalence in Australia of intimate partner violence, each intimate partner violence type, and multitype intimate partner violence, overall and by gender, age group, and sexual orientation.
Study design
National survey; Composite Abuse Scale (Revised)—Short Form administered in mobile telephone interviews, as a component...
This article reports on the barriers experienced by out-of-home care (OOHC) service providers to finding timely and appropriate mental-health supports and services for the children and young people in their care. All children in care will have experienced trauma in some form. The mental-health challenges and poor outcomes for children and young peo...
For this study, we conducted a case-file analysis on a sample of 100 domestic and family violence (DFV) related child protection intake reports from the South Australian Department for Child Protection (DCP). The aim of this study was to better understand the characteristics of DFV in families involved with statutory child protection services by de...
This chapter discusses the three court systems in Australia that address allegations about the safety of children. The chapter identifies differences and gaps between systems and proposes a solution to improve the objectivity of assessments.
Research suggests that the dimensions of childhood maltreatment (type, age of onset, duration, frequency and perpetrator) play an important role in determining health and wellbeing outcomes, though little information is available on these dimensions for any care experienced cohorts. This study aimed to determine if any variation in maltreatment dim...
Attending school is a pre-requisite not only for academic learning, but also for social connections, emotional wellbeing, and physical development. This is even more important for students experiencing disadvantage, such as those in out-of-home care. However, these students are likely to be absent from school far more often than their more privileg...
There is a significant body of research that attests to the deleterious impact of an accumulation of adverse childhood experience across the lifespan, which provides a strong rationale for the development of a means for evaluating this accumulation in a high‐risk population. We developed a theory‐driven measure, the Cumulative Experiences Index, an...
This study examined rates of mental health disorders and health risk behaviors in people with diverse gender identities and associations with five types of child maltreatment. We used data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS), a nationally representative survey of Australian residents aged 16 years and more, which was designed to und...
Background
Numerous national public inquiries have highlighted the problem of child sexual abuse in religious organizations. Despite this, evidence of population-wide prevalence is scarce.
Objective
To provide the first nationally representative prevalence estimates of child sexual abuse perpetrated by adults in religious organizations in Australi...
Worldwide, many children experience corporal punishment. Most research on corporal punishment has focused on parents' attitudes and use of corporal punishment; however, other relevant parenting factors and practices have rarely been examined. This study explored differences among countries with various levels of progress toward a total legal ban of...
This study aimed to explore key characteristics of the out-of-home care subgroup of a nationally representative Australian sample. To ensure that mental health services are appropriately targeted, it is critical that we understand the differential impacts of childhood experiences for this cohort. Using the Australian Child Maltreatment Study ( N =...
Sexual harassment inflicted by adolescents on their peers is a major public health issue, but its prevalence across childhood is not known. We provide the first nationally representative data on the prevalence of peer sexual harassment across childhood, using cross-sectional data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS). The ACMS surveye...
Parents are their children’s first teachers and there are long-standing calls for their involvement in child sexual abuse prevention. In this rapid systematic review, we asked the following questions: what rationales are used to justify parental involvement in child-focused child sexual abuse (CSA) prevention programs? what approaches are used for...
There is growing recognition of the contextual dynamics of child sexual abuse, with a developing evidence base supporting it, sparking calls to ensure prevention efforts are contextualised. Contextual approaches extend the focus of prevention beyond the individual, to include immediate situations, and the physical and social contexts in which abuse...
This study presents the most comprehensive national prevalence estimates of diverse gender and sexuality identities in Australians, and the associations with five separate types of child maltreatment and their overlap (multi-type maltreatment). Using Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS) data ( N = 8503), 9.5% of participants identified with a...
There is a growing body of evidence that adolescents, and other children, are responsible for a significant proportion of sexual abuse against children. However, there are substantial differences in how this phenomenon is defined and conceptualized between and within sectors. This scoping review explored the current definitions of harmful sexual be...
Child abuse and neglect in the home is a prevalent and significant issue in Australia. Recent findings from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study revealed that 62.2 per cent of participants had experienced at least one type of maltreatment during childhood, with most reporting multi‐type maltreatment. This rapid evidence review was aimed at under...
Few studies have examined associations between child maltreatment and criminal justice system involvement using large nationally representative samples and comprehensive measures of self‑reported maltreatment. This study analyses nationally representative data from the Australian Child Maltreatment Study, which surveyed 8,500 Australians to obtain...
Background: Little evidence exists about the prevalence of child sexual abuse (CSA) inflicted by different relational classes of perpetrators (e.g., parents; institutional adults; adolescents), and by individual types of perpetrators (e.g., fathers and male relatives; male teachers and male clergy; known and unknown adolescents). Objective: To gene...
Corporal punishment is associated with adverse outcomes; however, little empirical data exists about the state of corporal punishment in Australia. This paper presents the first national prevalence estimates of experiences of corporal punishment during childhood among Australians and its use as adults by Australian parents and caregivers. We also r...
Child sexual abuse prevention strategies typically focus on teaching children ‘protective behaviours’, including telling a ‘trusted adult’. However, disclosure rates are low, and we know little about who they tell. We analysed data from over 3400 young people aged 10–18. After viewing hypothetical unsafe scenarios involving either an adult or peer,...
Objective:
Across all of Australia's states and territories, it is legal for a parent or carer to hit their child. In this paper, we outline the legal context for corporal punishment in Australia and the argument for its reform.
Methods:
We review the laws that allow corporal punishment, the international agreements on children's rights, the evi...
Objectives
To describe the aims, design, methodology, and respondent sample representativeness of the Australian Child Maltreatment Study (ACMS).
Design, setting
Cross-sectional, retrospective survey; computer-assisted mobile telephone interviewing using random digit dialling (computer-generated), Australia, 9 April – 11 October 2021. ParticipantsP...
Objectives
To estimate the prevalence in Australia of each type of child maltreatment; to identify gender- and age group-related differences in prevalence.
Design, setting
Cross-sectional national survey; mobile telephone interviews using random digit dialling (computer-generated), Australia, 9 April – 11 October 2021. Retrospective self-report dat...
Objectives
To examine the associations between experiences of child maltreatment and mental disorders in the Australian population.DesignPopulation-representative survey conducted by computer-assisted telephone interviewing.
Setting, participants
Australian residents aged 16 years and older.
Main outcome measures
Mental disorder diagnoses of lifeti...
Objectives
To determine the prevalence in Australia of multi-type child maltreatment, defined as two or more maltreatment types (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, or exposure to domestic violence) and to examine its nature, family risk factors, and gender and age cohort differences.
Design
Retrospective cross-sectional survey...
Objective:
To estimate associations between all five types of child maltreatment (emotional abuse, neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and exposure to domestic violence) and health risk behaviours and conditions.
Design, setting, participants:
Nationally representative survey of Australian residents aged 16 years and older conducted by comput...
Objectives:
To examine associations between child maltreatment and health service use, both overall, by type and by the number of types of maltreatment reported.
Design, setting:
Cross-sectional, retrospective survey using the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire-R2: Adapted Version (Australian Child Maltreatment Study); computer-assisted mobile...
Background:
To establish national prevalence of child maltreatment, reliable, valid and contextually appropriate measurement is needed. This paper outlines the refinement, adaptation and testing of child maltreatment sections of the Juvenile Victimization Questionnaire (JVQ)-R2 for use in the Australian context.
Methods:
Three phases were undert...
Child abuse and neglect (CAN) causes significant harm to Australian children, resulting in significant health and social impacts. Paramedics frequently encounter patients experiencing CAN, though they often report little education and training. Little is known about their capacity to detect CAN or their willingness to report suspected cases. This s...
A report to the National Mental Health Commission. Melbourne by the Institute of Child
Protection Studies, Australian Catholic University
Fostering the growth, development, health, and wellbeing of children is a global priority. The early childhood period presents a critical window to influence lifelong trajectories, however urgent multisectoral action is needed to ensure that families are adequately supported to nurture their children's growth and development. With a shared vision t...
Critics are raising serious questions about who is “served” by statutory child protection systems if they utilize an intervention model based on reporting, investigation, and removal. Public health approaches present an innovative alternative, but how to get the right support and interventions to the right people at the right time remains challengi...
Organizations that interact with children and young people have a duty of care to ensure the safety of those children and young people from any manner of abuse, particularly from child sexual abuse. Faith-based (“religious”) organizations are of particular interest due to the number of victims/survivors speaking out about their experiences of groom...
Objectives:
Parenting is central to children's optimal development and accounts for a substantial proportion of the variance in child outcomes, including up to 40% of child mental health. Parenting is also one of the most modifiable, proximal, and direct factors for preventing and treating a range of children's problems and enhancing wellbeing. To...
This report presents findings from an exploratory study that examined broad-ranging,
publicly available data to investigate emerging trends, issues and needs in the child welfare workforce and the educational profile of this workforce. The research project itself stemmed from an awareness of the multifaceted changes required for implementing a pub...
![Multiple determinants of parenting practices [47]](publication/357643408/figure/fig1/AS:11431281360907460@1744107489757/Multiple-determinants-of-parenting-practices-47_Q320.jpg)
Parents can be essential change-agents in their children’s lives. To support parents in their parenting role, a range of programs have been developed and evaluated. In this paper, we provide an overview of the evidence for the effectiveness of parenting interventions for parents and children across a range of outcomes, including child and adolescen...
Epidemiological surveys measuring the prevalence of child maltreatment generate essential knowledge that is required to enhance human rights, promote gender equality, and reduce child abuse and neglect and its effects. Yet, evidence suggests Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) may assess the risk of these studies using higher than normal thresholds,...
Children and young people in out-of-home care are at a higher risk of suicide than young people not involved with child protection systems. Despite this, there is a lack of evidence of effective suicide prevention interventions for this vulnerable population. We reviewed the types of suicide prevention interventions that have been used and evaluate...
Parents can be essential change-agents in their children’s lives. To support parents in their parenting role, a range of programs have been developed and evaluated. In this paper, we provide an overview of the evidence for the effectiveness of parenting interventions for parents and children across a range of outcomes, including child and adolescen...
Introduction
Child maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect and exposure to domestic violence) is widely understood to be associated with multiple mental health disorders, physical health problems and health risk behaviours throughout life. However, Australia lacks fundamental evidence about the prevalence and characteri...
The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic brings new worries about the welfare of children, particularly those of families living in poverty and impacted other risk factors. These children will struggle more during the pandemic because of financial pressures and stress placed on parents, as well as their limited access to services and systems of support....
Although there is a lack of data on experiences in other youth-serving organisations, past research on schools has found that transgender youth often perceive the school climate, as well as the physical aspects of the school environment, as less safe than their cisgender peers. Similarly, transgender students’ level of confidence in adults and staf...
In this article, we argue for a new approach to child welfare—one that replaces existing child protection systems beset by scandals and tragedies with broad-scale system re-alignment that places public health prevention and early intervention at the forefront of efforts to engage, support, and empower families. We explain that the ‘rescue and remov...
Background:
Research on prevalence, risk factors, and prevention interventions for child sexual abuse has continued to focus on western and developed countries. Where country-level prevalence data or large-scale research exists, rates of child sexual abuse are consistently higher in developing and non-western countries than their western and devel...
Background:
Unacceptably high staff turnover has plagued traditional approaches to child protection, seemingly forever. Around the globe, numerous studies, reports and inquiries have highlighted how statutory agencies, focusing on risk-oriented investigations of suspected maltreatment, experience significant issues with worker stress and its occup...
Media reports and government enquiries have shone a spotlight on institutional child sexual abuse (CSA) globally. With youth-serving organizations seeking to identify how to improve policies and procedures developed to protect children, a gap exists in research and organizational quality assurance procedures. A new tool is needed to measure the cap...
This volume provides readers around the globe with a focused and comprehensive examination of how to prevent and respond to child maltreatment using evidence-informed public health approaches and programs that meet the needs of vulnerable children, and struggling families and communities. It outlines the system failures of contemporary forensically...
This chapter acknowledges the successes in child protection as well as the weaknesses and limitations that need to be addressed through the development of public health approaches. The child protection intervention framework is problematized as not delivering well enough the aims it has espoused. Global perspectives and historical developments are...
Children and young people are served by a wide range of organisations. Internally, attention has turned to the harms that have occurred in these organisations that should have prioritised the safety and wellbeing the children and young people it serves. In this chapter, we identify some of the risk factors associated with sexual abuse of children i...
This chapter summarises the major themes and key messages presented in the book and explores the new and emerging opportunities described by contributing authors. It pulls together the critical issues that are likely to continue to beset the development and implementation of public health approaches and system reform processes. The major learnings...
Internationally, best practice in child abuse prevention is grounded in a public health approach – identifying risk factors (such as parental substance misuse, mental health problems, or family violence), and putting in place wide-reaching strategies to reduce the ‘burden of disease’ by altering the risk profile of the entire population (not just s...
Family life education is neither a formal discipline nor a formally recognized vocation in Australia. Rather, it comprises a loose amalgam of programs, services, and policies—with little reliable evaluation data to guide its activities. Education for family life in Australia has a complex disjointed story, characterized by a marked decline in coupl...
This article sets out how the prevention of child maltreatment can be enhanced by a multi-level population-based approach in providing evidence - based parenting and family support. Such an approach works by reducing the family-related risk factors associated not only with abuse and neglect but also with a broader array of adverse childhood outcome...
Adverse childhood experiences have wide-ranging impacts on population health but are inherently difficult to study. Retrospective self-report is commonly used to identify exposure but adult population samples may be biased by non-response and loss to follow-up. We explored the implications of missing data for research on child abuse and neglect, do...
This fact sheet highlights some of the key trends in same-sex couple families in Australia. While challenges still face same-sex families, it indicates there have been improvements in societal attitudes to same-sex relationships.
Child maltreatment and other adverse childhood experiences adversely influence population health and socioeconomic outcomes. Knowledge of the risk factors for child maltreatment can be used to identify children at risk and may represent opportunities for prevention. We examined a range of possible child, parent and family risk factors for child mal...
In January 2013, the Governor-General of Australia appointed a six-member Royal Commission to inquire into how institutions with a responsibility for children have managed and responded to allegations and instances of child sexual abuse. The Royal Commission is tasked with investigating where systems have failed to protect children, and making reco...
In this special issue, we invited contributors to explore the theoretical, conceptual, and empirical foundations of the public health model, as it applies to child maltreatment prevention, drawing on the most rigorous science and proposing integrated models of practice and policy that have the potential to make a difference at scale. Programs and f...
Contemporary approaches to child protection are dominated by individualized forensically focused interventions that provide limited scope for more holistic preventative responses to children at risk and the provision of support to struggling families and communities. However, in many jurisdictions, it is frequently shown, often through public inqui...
A correlation between socioeconomic disadvantage and child maltreatment has long been observed, but the drivers of this association are poorly understood. We sought to estimate the effects of economic factors on risk of child maltreatment after adjusting for other known influences using the Australian Temperament Project, a population-based birth c...
This paper aims to define and clarify what trauma-informed service delivery means in the context of delivering child/family welfare services in Australia. Exposure to traumatic life events such as child abuse, neglect and domestic violence is a driver of service need. Policies and service providers must respond appropriately to people who are deali...
Building on the growing consensus that communities are best served by a public health approach to child protection, this article demonstrates that it is possible to identify family environments at a population level that could be the subject of public health interventions. Though child maltreatment research has traditionally focused on 'problematic...
Primary prevention requires working outside existing systems.
This report presents a medium- to long-term evaluation of the Communities for Children (CfC) initiative. This Australian Government initiative aims to improve services for young children and their families and the communities they grow up in. The evaluation, known as the Stronger Families in Australia (SFIA) study, looks at the impact of CfC on chi...
Diversion from the youth justice system is a critical goal for addressing the overrepresentation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system. In this report, four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising practice in...
The past practices of forced adoption have resulted in life-long consequences for the majority of those directly involved, particularly for mothers and adopted persons, but also for other family members (Higgins, 2010). This article distils recent research conducted by the Australian Institute of Family Studies (AIFS) and discusses the implications...
Families are the mainstay of safety and support for children. While most children live in safe and supportive environments, governments are aware that too many children are becoming known to child protection services. This has led to a shift in thinking away from solely concentrating on responding to ‘risk of harm’ reports towards a broader public...
There is a little rigorous research and evaluation evidence to show whether prevention and early intervention programs are working to reduce the over-representation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system. Few programs have been comprehensively evaluated and shown to be effective. Despite this, promising practices are identified f...
Engaging parents in their children’s education improves the children’s educational attainment and ongoing engagement in education.
• A family’s level of ‘social capital’ and socio-economic position affects how they engage with their children’s school.
• Risk factors associated with poor parental engagement include:
– family problems such as poverty...
Diversion from the youth justice system is a critical goal for addressing the over-representation of Indigenous young people in the criminal justice system. In this report, we examine four programs that were already being implemented by states and territories and identified by them under the National Indigenous Law & Justice Framework as promising...
The collected essays in this book seek to explore some of the complexities that confront both those who frame social policy and those involved in the legal systems that intersect with child and family issues. This book narrates not only historical perspectives and current views, but points to some of the challenges for future directions in policy a...
In July 2013, the then Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous
Affairs (FaHCSIA) (now the Department of Social Services) commissioned the Australian
Institute of Family Studies to undertake the Forced Adoption Support Services Scoping Study (the “Scoping Study”).
The purpose of the Scoping Study is to develop options for...
One of the most recent major shifts in focus of child maltreatment research has been the recognition of the interrelatedness of childhood victimisation experiences. The purpose of this paper is to compare two of the main frameworks that have been developed to better understand and measure this interrelatedness: multi-type maltreatment and polyvicti...
Journal: Communities, Children and Families Australia
:
The National Research Study on the Service Response to Past Adoption Practices examined the extent and effects of closed adoptions in Australia, to strengthen the evidence available to governments and service providers in addressing the current needs of those affected. With over 1500 particip...
There is no universally accepted, all encompassing definition of the concept of "neglect", and consideration of supervisory neglect suggests that there is no "one size fits all" definition. Supervision can be a complex, resource-intensive activity when undertaken at its maximum effectiveness—understanding and evaluating what comprises "good enoug...
Questions
Question (1)
This article sets out some of the different ways in which 'powerful pepetrators' use similar or different strategies to other perpetrators of child sexual abuse, and the implications for training and prevention strategies. I particularly liked the emphasis the authors give to the need for 'upward facing' strategies directed at leaders, and processes for organisations to follow when concerns are raised about the behaviour of leaders.
