Parents’ alleged self-esteem as an indicator is given great importance, in spite of the lack of scientific evidence for any correlation between self-esteem and child abuse. In California the state administration had a research group investigate how important problems could be solved by “increasing the self-esteem of the population”. This task force went through 65,000 research articles in psychology dealing with self-esteem. The result was published in the book The Social Importance of Self-Esteem in 1989. The chapter dealing with child abuse and care failure concludes that there is no documentation for allegations of any connection between low self-esteem and child abuse. The team found no basis for claiming that higher self-esteem would reduce abuse and neglect of children. Nor was any connection found between low self-esteem and aggression or violence. – Although several hundred studies surveyed showed no such correlations, our CWS still claims that there is a clear correlation between failure to give care and low self-esteem, which therefore counts as a risk indicator in assessing whether children are to be deprived of their parents.