Children who are abused and neglected at home are more likely than their peers to do badly at school, to have behaviour problems and to become victims of bullying, according to a report.
The first British overview of research on the relationship between how children are treated at home and how they fare at school proves that abuse has a "profound effect" on children’s performance in all aspects of school life, its authors say.
The study, published by the NSPCC, includes the finding that maltreatment in the first five years of life almost triples a child’s likelihood of having multiple physiological, behavioural and academic problems at school.
Children with special educational needs are more than seven times more likely than their classmates to suffer physical abuse and have almost the same chance of being neglected, according to the research.
The study also says that children who have spent a year or more in care, and are more likely than their peers to have suffered maltreatment, are more likely to fail their GCSEs; 8% of youngsters in care achieve five good GCSEs, compared with a national average of more than 50%.
Although it is impossible to gauge precisely the numbers of children suffering abuse, often without either their school authorities or other services knowing the truth of their circumstances, one study found one in six young British adults reported at least one serious abusive incident in their childhoods.
The report calls on schools to address pupils’ problems "with a careful eye to the possibility of there being problems at home", and suggests that this approach could lead to early identification of any abuse.
英国全国防止虐待儿童协会最近公布的一项研究报告显示，对于那些在家中总是受到虐待且处于被忽视地位的孩子们来说，其学习成绩很有可能会落后于同学们，举止异常并成为恃强凌弱者的牺牲品。
据英国《卫报》5月25日报道，该研究报告的作者表示，这是在英国历史上首次进行的关于孩子在家庭中的处境与其在学校里的表现之间关系的全面研究。该项研究证明了来自家庭的虐待会对孩子学校生活的各个方面产生“深远的影响”。
该报告说，一个孩子在其人生头5年里所受到的粗暴对待会使他(她)日后在学校中产生诸多生理、行为及学业方面问题的概率几乎提高到3倍。
根据此项研究的结果，那些受到肉体虐待或被忽视的孩子需要接受特殊教育的可能性比其同班同学要高出7倍有余。
该研究报告还指出，那些在1年及1年以上的时间内处于忧虑状态而且比同龄人更容易受到虐待的孩子，其无法通过英国中学普通毕业证书考试(GCSE)的可能性也会相应增加;在整天忧心忡忡的青少年中只有8%的人可以在GCSE考试中得到5个优，而全英国这一指标的平均值超过了50%。
尽管目前尚无法准确测算出受虐待孩子的人数，无论是学校还是其它社会服务机构都无法弄清他们所处的真实环境，但有一项研究发现，在较为年轻的英国成年人中有六分之一的人表示他们在自己的青少年时期至少经历过一次较为严重的虐待事件。
该研究报告呼吁学校，应将孩子在学校里所表现出的种种问题与其在家中遇到诸多问题的可能性结合起来，通过此种方法可以使人们尽早发现孩子所遭受的任何虐待。
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