National Child Abuse Prevention Month
April 8, 2026April 8, 2026
National Child Abuse Prevention Month
National Child Abuse Prevention Month recognizes the importance of families and communities working together to prevent child abuse and neglect.
About Adverse Childhood Experiences- ACE’s
Talking about abuse may feel uncomfortable, but silence can’t protect children — informed, attentive adults do!
The CDC plays a crucial role in raising awareness about child abuse and neglect through National Child Abuse Prevention Month (NCAPM). This month is dedicated to educating the public about the signs of child abuse and neglect, encouraging communities to take action, and providing resources for prevention and support. The CDC’s efforts include:
. What are child abuse and neglect?
Child abuse and neglect includes all types of abuse and neglect of a child under the age of 18 by a parent, caregiver, or another person in a custodial role (e.g., a religious leader, a coach, or a teacher) that results in harm, the potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child.
There are four common types of abuse and neglect:
Physical abuse is the intentional use of physical force that can result in physical injury. Examples include hitting, kicking, shaking, or other shows of force against a child.
Sexual abuse refers to any completed or attempted sexual acts or sexual contact with a child by a caregiver. Examples include fondling, penetration, and exposing a child to other sexual activities. Read more information about child sexual abuse.
Emotional abuse refers to behaviors that harm a child’s self-worth or emotional well-being. Examples include name-calling, shaming, rejecting, and withholding love.
Neglect is the failure to meet a child’s basic physical and emotional needs. These needs include housing, food, clothing, education, access to medical care, and having feelings validated and appropriately responded to.1
Quick facts and stats
Child abuse and neglect are common. At least one in seven children experienced child abuse or neglect in the past year in the United States.2 This is likely an underestimate because many cases are unreported. In 2021, 1,820 children died of abuse and neglect in the United States.3
Children living in poverty experience more abuse and neglect. Experiencing poverty can place a lot of stress on families, which may increase the risk for child abuse and neglect. Rates of child abuse and neglect are five times higher for children in families with low socioeconomic status compared to families with a higher socioeconomic status.
Child maltreatment is costly. In the United States, the total lifetime economic burden associated with child abuse and neglect was about $592 billion in 2018.4 This economic burden rivals the cost of other high-profile public health problems, such as heart disease and diabetes.5
Outcomes
Children who are abused or neglected may suffer immediate physical injuries such as cuts, bruises, or broken bones. They may also have emotional and psychological problems, such as anxiety or posttraumatic stress.
Over the long term, children who are abused or neglected are also at increased risk for experiencing future violence victimization and perpetration, substance abuse, sexually transmitted infections, delayed brain development, lower educational attainment, and limited employment opportunities.
Abuse and neglect may result in toxic stress, which can change brain development and increase the risk for problems like posttraumatic stress disorder and learning, attention, and memory difficulties.6
Prevention
Child abuse and neglect can be prevented. Certain factors may increase or decrease the risk of perpetrating or experiencing child abuse and neglect.
Preventing child abuse and neglect requires understanding and addressing the factors that put people at risk for or protect them from violence.
Everyone benefits when children have safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments. We all have role to play.
Preventing Child Abuse and Neglect
Creating safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments is essential for helping children and families thrive. These relationships and environments also help protect children against or lessen the negative effects of violence.
Safety, stability, and nurturing are defined as follows:
Safety: extent to which a child is free from fear and secure from physical or psychological harm within their social and physical environment.
Stability: degree of predictability and consistency in a child’s social, emotional, and physical environment.
Nurturing: extent to which a child’s physical, emotional, and developmental needs are sensitively and consistently met.
Everyone has a role to play in preventing child abuse and neglect and helping all children reach their full potential.
Ensuring the well-being of children is a shared responsibility. Friends, family, and other trusted adults can help by developing nurturing, supportive relationships with the children in their lives. Volunteering as a mentor at an afterschool program or offering to babysit are other ways to help.
Neighborhood associations can connect families to resources and other neighborhood adults to help with household tasks or with childcare.
Employers can adopt or support workplace policies that help families, such as livable wages, paid leave, and flexible and consistent schedules.
Everyone can recognize the challenges that families face and offer support and encouragement to reduce stress. Help encourage parents and caregivers to ask for help when they need it. Everyone can also support efforts to:
Adopt policies in support of families (such as family-friendly work policies).
Increase access to high-quality childcare and education.
Create safe places or neighborhood activities where children are supervised, and families can gather.
Provide access to free or low-cost evidence-based parent training.
Discourage violence and help ensure the safety of all members of a community.
Public health practitioners, partners, and other professionals also play a vital role in preventing child abuse and neglect.
About Adverse Childhood Experiences
Adverse childhood experiences can have long-term negative impacts on health, opportunity and well-being.
Adverse childhood experiences are common and some groups experience them more than others.
What are adverse childhood experiences?
Adverse childhood experiences, or ACEs, are potentially traumatic events that occur in childhood (0-17 years). Examples include:
* Experiencing violence, abuse, or neglect.
* Witnessing violence in the home or community.
* Having a family member attempt or die by suicide.
Also included are aspects of the child’s environment that can undermine their sense of safety, stability, and bonding. Examples can include growing up in a household with:
* Substance use problems.
* Mental health problems.
* Instability due to parental separation.
* Instability due to household members being in jail or prison.
The examples above are not a complete list of adverse experiences. Many other traumatic experiences could impact health and well-being. This can include not having enough food to eat, experiencing homelessness, or unstable housing.
Quick facts and stats
ACEs are common. Three in four high school students reported experiencing one or more ACEs, and one in five experienced four or more ACEs. ACEs that were most common among high school students were emotional abuse, physical abuse, and living in a household affected by poor mental health or substance use.6
Preventing ACEs could reduce many health conditions. For example, preventing ACEs could reduce suicide attempts among high school students by as much as 89%, prescription pain medication misuse by as much as 84%, and persistent feelings of sadness and hopelessness by as much as 66%.6 Additionally, preventing ACEs could also reduce many health conditions in adulthood, including chronic diseases and behavioral health conditions. Estimates show that preventing ACEs could reduce cases of heart disease by 22% and depression by 78% for adults.
Some people are at greater risk of experiencing one or more ACEs than others. While all children are at risk of ACEs, numerous studies show differences in such experiences. These differences are linked to the social and economic environments in which some families live.45 ACEs are highest among females, American Indian or Alaska Native and multicultural youth, and gay, lesbian, bisexual, or questioning youth.
ACEs are costly. ACEs-related health consequences cost an estimated $14.1 trillion dollars annually in the United States in direct medical spending and lost healthy-life years.7
Outcomes
ACEs can have lasting effects on health and well-being in childhood and life opportunities (such as education and job potential) well into adulthood. These experiences can increase the risks of injury, sexually transmitted infections, and involvement in sex trafficking. They can also increase risks for maternal and child health problems including teen pregnancy, pregnancy complications, and fetal death. Also included are a range of chronic diseases and leading causes of death, such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and suicide.
ACEs and community factors such as living in under-resourced neighborhoods can cause toxic stress. Toxic stress (extended or prolonged stress) from ACEs can negatively affect children’s brain development, immune system, and stress-response systems. These changes can affect children’s attention, decision-making, and learning.
Children growing up with toxic stress may have difficulty forming healthy and stable relationships. They may also have unstable work histories as adults and struggle with finances, job stability, and depression throughout life. These effects can also be passed on to their own children.171819 Some children may face further exposure to toxic stress from ongoing traumas. These ongoing traumas include the impacts of poverty resulting from limited educational and economic opportunities.
Prevention
Adverse childhood experiences can be prevented. Certain factors may increase or decrease the risk of experiencing adverse childhood experiences.
Preventing adverse childhood experiences requires understanding and addressing the factors that put people at risk for or protect them from violence.
Creating safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments for all children prevents ACEs and helps all children reach their full potential. These relationships and environments are essential to creating positive childhood experiences. Everyone has a role to play in promoting positive childhood experiences and preventing the harmful effects of ACEs.
A Public Health Approach to Child Abuse and Neglect
CDC’s goal is to stop child abuse and neglect from happening in the first place.
To prevent child abuse and neglect, key sectors of society including public health, government, education, and social services can come together to focus on comprehensive strategies and approaches.
Overview
Comprehensive violence prevention means addressing risk and protective factors and how these factors affect people, communities, and society. Effective prevention strategies include modifying policies, practices, and behaviors. Children and families benefit from having safe, stable, nurturing relationships and environments.
CDC’s Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Resource for Action represents a select group of strategies based on the best available evidence. Below are the evidence-based strategies to achieve the goal of preventing child abuse and neglect. With each strategy, example approaches include specific ways to advance the strategy. This resource is also available in Spanish.
Prevention strategies
* Strengthen economic supports to families
* Change social norms to support positive parenting
* Provide quality care and education early in life
* Enhance parenting skills to promote healthy child development
* Intervene to lessen harms and prevent future risk
Implementation guidance
CDC’s Violence Prevention in Practice tool focuses on taking action to implement the strategies in the Prevention Resources for Action guides. The tool is designed to support state and local health agencies and other stakeholders who have a role in planning, implementing, and evaluating violence prevention efforts.
