Health Update: Youths Report Cases of Abuse, Assault in Survey

One out of four 10- to- 16-year-olds--or 6.2 million children--is a victim of assault or abuse every year, a new national survey says.

One-third of the children surveyed said that they were either assaulted or abused or that someone had tried to victimize them in the previous year. One out of eight children was injured in such attacks, which ranged from hitting to sexual assault, and one out of 100 required medical attention as a result, the survey says.

The Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire conducted the telephone survey of 2,000 children, and the results were published this month in the journal Pediatrics. The...