Kids Report Abuse Through Text Hotline.

• Position: YOUR LIFE

With no hotline specifically designed for children and teens suffering abuse and neglect, some of these kids have been reaching out to a general crisis text line, researchers have found. Abuse often was disclosed in the texts along with other issues, including hating their family or some mental health issue. Some teens also used language related to suicidal behaviors.

"When it comes to abuse, teens often don't want to talk about it or other sensitive topics out loud. Given how often teens text and use social media, a text-based crisis service provides teens with a safe way to begin the process of disclosure," explains study coauthor Scottye Cash, associate professor of social work at Ohio State University, Columbus.

This was the first study of children disclosing maltreatment via texts. She conducted the research with Laura Schwab-Reese of Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind., and Nitya Kanuri of Yale University, New Haven, Conn.

The hotline conversations studied included 24,730 individual text messages. The average age of texters was 14. Results of the content analysis showed that 44% of the children disclosed abuse in the first text ("My dad's abusing me and I have no escape"); about 13% discussed family issues ("I hate...