Childhood Physical Abuse among Mentally Disabled Children - Research Paper Example

Childhood Physical Abuse among Mentally Disabled Children Introduction Awareness on child abuse is fast catching pace with other forms of maltreatment of particular sections of the population. For a long time, research has mainly been dominated by investigations into the impacts of abuse on particular sections of the community defined by race, origin, or such other criteria (Mandell, Walrath, Manteuffel, Sgro & Pinto-Martin, 2005). However, the movement towards greater societal awareness and equal representation of rights has exposed some of the core issues in society that have largely remained unaddressed (Hagele, 2006). Some of these have been mistreatment of women, mistreatment of children, and abuse of children, including violation of their rights. More recently, the push for preservation of the rights of the mentally challenged in society has seen more research go into the forms of abuse perpetrated against them, and to what extents these actions have been hurting their ability to comfortably fit in society. More so, researchers have paid particular focus upon the factors that make the mentally challenged children more prone to acts of abuse, as suggested by subsequent research findings. While many forms of abuse are perpetrated against the mentally handicapped children, sexual and physical abuses are becoming particularly rampant, with statistics showing a sharp rise between the 1990s and today (Putnam, 2003). So, why is the response quite unproductive despite heightened awareness? This is the key question that I will be focusing on as I endeavor to assess the state research into sexual and physical abuse among the mentally challenged children. Sexual abuse is defined as the commission of acts sexual or sex-suggestive acts on an unwilling, or unaware person, or one who is not legally considered to be mature to engage in sex, or who is unable to expressly refuse the advances of a perpetrator (Putnam, 2003). In this definition, mentally disabled children are expressly covered as being unable to make sound decisions to refuse sexual advances both due to the state of their minds and their inability emanating from mental incapacitation. Physical abuse incorporates the use of excessive force to make a person obey instructions, make them suffer, or simply torture them physically (Spataro, Mullen, Burgess, Wells & Moss, 2004). In light of the growing concern about sexual and physical abuse of mentally challenged children, I have undertaken to investigate the state of literature in the field, search for existing gaps and assess whether these gaps could be responsible for the growing cases of abuse despite increased attention into the issue. Literature Review While research has been discretional in portraying society as having failed in its efforts to safeguard the rights of mentally challenged children, the main failures within the system have not been accurately documented (Briere & Elliott, 1994; Wolak, Finkelhor, Mitchell & Ybarra, 2008). As such, an approach of the issue from the dimension of causes for failure and the weaknesses within the system would be invaluable in starting to unearth why the growing body of research into physical and sexual abuse among mentally disabled children has not had a proportionate positive effect on the target populations. What Is Known about Physical and Sexual Abuse among the Mentally Disabled Children Apparently, the more outstanding issue into this topic is the difference between the rates of incidence and those of prevalence established through various research studies (Blake, Simkin, Ledsky, Perkins & Calabrese, 2001). The apparent lack of harmony in the results indicates that there could be attempts in trying to mask off some of the actual statistics pertaining to the findings. However, this does not dispute the fact that the prevalence of these cases has been rising over time. Attempts to equip mentally disabled children with the requisite knowledge have had a positive impact in reducing the prevalence of cases of abuse among the mentally disabled children. However, many more of them are unable to offer crucial clues into their experiences, and are thus unable to report the perpetrators/ abusers (Blake et al, 2001). Instead, researchers have taken the alternative route of educating their care providers in order to try and stem the issue. This approach, too, has received a positive remark about its efficiency and ability to significantly reduce the cases of abuse in particular sections of the country (Mandell et al, 2005). However, research still indicates that even among these populations, eventual neglect of the programs that sustained the positive change leads to decline in the gains initially reported (Mandell et al, 2005; Hagele, 2006). Essentially, this highlights the issue of delivery of messages and information regarding containing the vice. It is possible that the messages delivered during the educational programs have only a temporary impact on society, and, therefore, lacks the ability to sustain the aims of the program in the long run. Research into the types of messages/ information delivered to the target populations has been partly documented by researchers interested in establishing the participants’ understanding of issues highlighted in the lessons offered. For instance, Briere and Elliott (2003) focused on some of the factors that have prevented the adoption of quality techniques and approaches in fighting the problem of physical and sexual abuse of children. In this study, the researchers found that the approaches used by trainers were the first major barrier to getting members of surveyed communities to willingly participate in the training. Further Briere and Elliott (2003) established that staffs’ inability to deliver their messages accurately and in a way that they would help to portray the affected group as equals of the rest of society further led to the dismal performance of the efforts. Apparently, the first reported mistake by Briere and Elliott highlights a bad beginning to a sumptuous program – the inability to convince members of the target community automatically translates into low attendance, and an eventual poor performance of the entire program. However, this research still failed to establish how messages are delivered, and what impact they have towards reducing the prevalence of abuse among the mentally disabled children in the selected community. Proposed Research Study and Design/ Methodology alongside Potential Impacts on the Literature Apparently, research does not appear to provide adequate leads into the issues that mainly affect delivery of information among the target communities. For this reason, this research will focus on assessing the viability of popular messages used in delivering information about the risks, legal implications, and barbarism of sexually and physically abusing the mentally handicapped children. In order to achieve this goal the below stated research design and accompanying methodology have been proposed. The research will adopt a qualitative approach focused on assessing the ability of participants to recall the messages given in an earlier training program that focuses upon the issues around sexual and physical abuse of the mentally challenged children. The researcher will select a small sample of people either living with underage persons with mental disability or who are not living with such people and provide training on the need to ensure they are not abused, their rights, and their vulnerability to the participants for a period of one week, and assess their ability get the messages through interviews offered at the end of the training sessions. The issues that come up in the interviews will be transcribed for coding. The researcher will make two more interviews with the participants – one after two weeks and the other after two months and transcribe the interviews accordingly. The transcribed interviews will then be coded in order to conduct the required data analysis. Through the analysis, popular themes will be established. These will likely mark the most memorable parts of the training. The researcher will then assess the extent of the information lost through subsequent interviews and make recommendations for its fronting in future training sessions. Application – Prevention and Intervention Programs Many programs have already been put in place to check the high and rising prevalence of physical and sexual abuse among the children. Among these, some have been in place for longer while some have lasted for only short periods. One long-term example is the “Circle of Security” that is operated in Washington. The program involves a twenty-week training for parents. The training aims at creating better child-parent attachments and reducing the risk factors for abuse of children with mental disabilities. The broad nature of the program has also enabled it to encompass other children at relatively high risk (King et al, 2003). This research proposes the development of a communication model that does not only offer durability of information, but one that also offers clarity and improves enforceability of the information gathered for longer periods of time. The model can be effectively applied in such a program as the “Circle of Security”, thereby ensuring that the information remains valuable and effective among present and former members who had reasons to leave the community. Conclusion As research into the increasing prevalence of sexual and physical abuse among the mentally handicapped children has been increasing, so have the efforts to provide sound interventions. However, the efforts do not appear to bear as much fruit as the policy enforcers would expect. This research focuses on the delivery of information regarding the listed types of abuse, and investigates the reason why the messages have failed to achieve the intended results. The viability of information contained in messages for these programs appears to be the weak link. Thus, my efforts will be intensified towards establishing the sustainability of information given by program officers, including durability and the interest it generates among the audience. Read More