A majority of social workers believe children should be at least 12 before being left home alone for four hours or longer, and they are more likely to consider a home-alone scenario as neglect if a child is injured while left unsupervised. That’s according to research that a University of Iowa researcher presented at the American Academy of Pediatrics 2019 National Conference and Exhibition this week in New Orleans. “The level of neglect is really the same whether a child knowingly left home alone is injured or not, and such situations should be handled the same by child protective investigators,” said Dr. Charles Jennissen, clinical professor and pediatric emergency medicine staff physician with the Carver College of Medicine in Iowa City. For the study, researchers surveyed 485 members of the National Association of Social Workers who designated their practice as “Child/Family Welfare” from October to December 2015. To read more about the study, click here.