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Se presenta una investigación documental de tipo estado del arte, que tuvo por objetivo realizar una síntesis de la producción científica entre los años 2015 y 2019 acerca del maltrato infantil por negligencia, con el fin de establecer un panorama de las tendencias investigativas referidas a: los factores psicológicos implicados en la negligencia infantil, el contexto psicosocial en el que tiene lugar, y relaciones de comorbilidad entre la negligencia y otros tipos de maltrato. Los hallazgos destacan el conocimiento desarrollado acerca de los factores predisponentes, principalmente: el estilo de apego parental, la experiencia de maltrato en la propia infancia y la psicopatología parental. Igualmente, se evidencia un avance relevante en el conocimiento de los efectos en el/la menor víctima, tanto a corto como a largo plazo. Sin embargo, la alusión generalizada al término abuso y negligencia introduce ambigüedades respecto a la diferenciación que se hace de los diferentes tipos de maltrato y al conocimiento desarrollado respecto a las relaciones de comorbilidad más factibles según la naturaleza y mecanismos subyacentes en cada tipo de maltrato. A esto se suma que algunas categorías –como la vivencia de la maternidad y paternidad en la práctica del cuidado cotidiano– son un aspecto poco abordado en las revisiones consultadas, en las que se observa una brecha en esta área del conocimiento. De esta manera, se ofrecen insumos para el fortalecimiento de los mecanismos de evaluación del riesgo de este tipo de maltrato y las estrategias de intervención psicosocial que se ofrecen desde los sistemas de protección infantil y equipos básicos de atención en salud.
A state of the art documentary research is presented, which aimed to make a synthesis of the scientific production between 2015 and 2019 about child maltreatment by neglect, in order to establish an overview of the research trends related to: psychological factors involved in child neglect, psychosocial context in which it takes place and comorbidity relationships between neglect and other types of maltreatment. To this end, we searched databases for documentary studies dealing with child neglect in the family context. The initial search yielded 18,860 research reports; once the refinement filters were applied, referring to: observation window (2015 - 2019), area (psychology, social sciences, health sciences and related) and type of document (reviews), 223 results were obtained which were reviewed by title and abstract, of these 47 met the inclusion criteria and were considered in the present State of the Art.
Poceeded with a content analysis, using a systematization matrix that included information on: article identification data, theoretical and methodological structure and main findings.
The analysis yielded information about the three initial categories and allowed the emergence of two categories: effects on the child victim and lines for intervention.
The findings highlight the knowledge developed about predisposing factors, mainly:
parental attachment style, experience of maltreatment in childhood and parental psychopathology; an aspect that becomes more complex when related to the environmental and socioeconomic conditions of the families, for example, the debate between poverty and neglect is far from being resolved, to the extent that there is not enough clarity about how to judge situations of deprivation in the care of children when parents (or main caregivers) are permanently faced with situations that put the basic needs of the family at stake.
Likewise, there is evidence of a relevant advance in the knowledge of the effects on the child victim; effects that were classified as: biological and neurological, related to internalizing and externalizing problems, in attachment and bonding, in the development of criminal behavior and long-term effects, which raises the possible risk of a cycle of violence associated with neglect, since risk factors become effects or consequences.
Likewise, a generalized allusion to the term abuse and neglect was found, an aspect that introduces ambiguities regarding the differentiation made of the different types of maltreatment and the knowledge developed regarding the most feasible comorbidity relationships according to the nature and underlying mechanisms in each type of maltreatment; an even more complex aspect when talking about the less visible forms such as psychosocial neglect, which supports the statement that neglect continues to be the least documented type of maltreatment in the research.
Likewise, it was found that categories such as the experience of motherhood and fatherhood in the practice of daily care, are an aspect that is little addressed in the reviews consulted, so there is a gap in knowledge regarding the complexity of a phenomenon that overlaps in the bonding patterns, in the dependence and vulnerability of children.
Consequently, the State of the Art, recognizing the development of interventions based on differential susceptibility or resilience, as well as on the improvement of the interaction between parents and children, offers inputs for the strengthening of the risk assessment mechanisms of this type of maltreatment and the psychosocial intervention strategies that are oriented from the child protection systems and, especially, from the basic health care teams, since they are in the first line of observation and therefore of early prevention of this type of maltreatment.
