Maltreatment of children and adolescents with disabilities and disorders

The scientific interest in the issue of child maltreatment emerged with the publication of the article The battered-child syndrome by Keupe in 1962. Currently there has been a high and growing social visibility of child maltreatment which has led to numerous studies being conducted in the most diverse and multidisciplinary areas. In Portugal as far as we know despite the growing interest in this area the studies focus mainly on the particular aspects of etiology impact individual social and political/legislative factors in relation to children and young people without associated problems. At international level there are already studies that show the correlation between maltreatment and disability. In this sense we have tried to verify the Portuguese reality with this research through a prevalence study. We tried to understand whether disability and/or developmental disorders of the child/adolescent would be a cause of maltreatment or in turn a consequence of maltreatment.