Types of Child Abuse and Neglect - Research Paper Example

Child Abuse Introduction Child abuse is a common problem all over the world. It is prevalent in all races, socio-economic groups and religions. In the United States itself, it is estimated that approximately 4 million children get abused every year (McDonald 221). In the year 1996, it was reported that approximately 4.3 percent of children younger than 18 years of age were victims of child maltreatment in the United States (McDonald 221). The unofficial numbers are much higher and experts have predicted that 2- 10 million cases of child abuse can occur every year (Lawson 204). The rates are probably much higher than these estimated numbers. Hence it is legal, ethical, moral and life-or-death decision to report and handle child abuse and neglect. It is not only difficult to identify abused children; it is also difficult to handle the management of these children. This article is intended to gain insight into various types of abuse, their effects on the children and strategies available to manage such children. Definition of child abuse and neglect The definition of child abuse and neglect varies from state to state and country to country. According to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA) of United States (cited in McDonald 221), abuse is "a recent act or failure to act that results in death, serious physical or emotional harm, sexual abuse or exploitation, or imminent risk of serious harm; involves a child; and is carried out by a parent or caregiver who is responsible for the child’s welfare." The definition is for that abuse caused by caregiver or parent of the child. Also, failure to act, because of which serious harm has resulted, is also considered as abuse or neglect. It is important to note that harm or negligence caused by other acquaintances or strangers is not considered as child abuse or neglect. While direct or indirect infliction of any sort of physical, mental or sexual injury is considered as child abuse, deprivation of the basic necessities like food, clothing, care and medical attention is considered as child neglect. Types of child abuse and neglect The most common type of child abuse is physical abuse. Anger on the part of the parent or caregiver can miscalculate the extent of damage that can be inflicted to the child resulting in physical injuries. In most cases, the injuries are unintentional. Physical abuse can occur from any form of physical act either by parent or caregiver or by any other person who is responsible for the child (McDonald 223). The injury may range from simple bruise to severe fractures. Since bruise is an indication of damage to body tissue and breaking of blood vessels, discipline methods which cause bruises are considered as child abuse. The physical abuse may even lead to death. These injuries are termed abuse irrespective of the intentions behind the acts. Neglect is another type of child abuse that merits importance (McDonald 222). Failure on the part of the parent, caregiver or guardian to provide for the basic needs of the child is called neglect. The neglect may be physical, medical, educational or emotional. Inadequate provision of required food, shelter and proper supervision is called physical negligence. Medical negligence is failure to provide proper medical care or appropriate mental health treatment. Failure to attend to appropriate education needs of the child on the part of the parent, caregiver or guardian is known as educational negligence. When there is no proper attention to the emotional and psychological needs of the child, emotional negligence ensues (McDonald 223). Allowing the child to consume alcohol and take illicit drugs or other dangerous substances or drugs is also considered as emotional negligence because, children do not know the difference between right and wrong and it is the duty of the parents or caregivers to help them adapt to good conducts and behaviors (McDonald 223). When child abuse involves sexual activity which cannot be comprehended to by the child, it is known as sexual abuse. While direct intercourse involving anal or vaginal is the obvious form of sexual activity, other forms of activities like fondling. Voyeurism and even exhibitionism is considered as child sexual abuse (McDonald 224). Girl children are more commonly subjected to sexual abuse. (National Research Council 166). A silent form of abuse that frequently goes unrecognized is emotional abuse. Any behavior that either impairs the development of the emotional aspect of the child or affects his/her sense of worth is called emotional abuse (McDonald 224). Constant threatening, criticizing or rejection, or withholding of guidance, love or support falls under this category. This aspect of child abuse is difficult to identify and prove, but is almost always there with other forms of child abuse. It is important to identify emotional child abuse because, though it is invisible, it has a lasting impact on the social and mental development of the child and may leave lifelong psychosocial scars which are worse that physically inflicted scars. Child abandonment is another type of abuse which is actually gaining momentum. This occurs when the child is left alone without providing information to trace the parents or caregivers. Abandonment can lead to serious harm or even death (National Research Council 209). Consequences of child abuse Abuse and neglect in childhood can lead to many short term and long term consequences (National Research Council 208). The short-term effects include physical injuries and feelings of shamefulness, hopelessness and helplessness. The long-term consequences include developmental delay, brain damage, inter-personal relationships, social difficulties, learning disorders, depression, poor academic performance, aggressive and violent behavior, teenage pregnancy, substance abuse, criminal behavior and sexual victimization. Child abuse can lead to many psychological problems like psychological distress (Cowens 74). In a study by Shipman et al (268), the researchers demonstrated that maltreated children failed to develop appropriate emotion regulation skills and thus had more emotional dysregulation when compared to children not subjected to maltreatment. They also proved that behaviors of maternal emotion socialization mediated the relation between that development of emotion regulation skills and maltreatment status. Understanding of the role of parent-child interaction in the development of emotion-regulation skills is possible through functionalist theory. According to this theory, emotions help organize behavior and learning helps to regulate emotional experience and emotion expression for achievement of interpersonal and intrapersonal goals (Shipman 269). Emotions regulation skills are learnt by children through interactions with parents, caregivers and others like teachers and relatives. Supportive parental responses in the form of comforting and empathy enhance the emotion regulation strategies like skills for appropriate labeling and detection of emotion, distress coping mechanisms and socially acceptable emotion expression. Children, whose parents respond to negative emotions of their child through supportive measures, are able to control emotional arousal by adaptive coping strategies and self-soothing techniques (Shipman 269). On the other hand, children of harsh or unsupportive parents are unable to cope with emotion arousal appropriately and land up in distress (Shipman 270). It is yet unclear as to how behavior problems arise subsequent to child abuse. According to Pollak (968), one of the mechanisms could be attentional effects. Pollak (268) observed that continual exposure to affective experiences in childhood during periods of developmental epochs in which there is immaturity and neuroplasticity of perceptual and sensory systems leads to behavioral and emotional development aberrations (268). Research has shown that children who are physically abused develop some amount of perceptual sensitivity to anger. Pollak (974) proved that when an abused child is exposed to anger-related stimuli, they are able to cope with the stressed environment because of their high-alert levels for harmful situations. Thus, those exposed to abuse experiences in early childhood days do not develop regulatory capacities and hence fail to develop compensatory mechanisms. The effect of child abuse depends from one child to another. According to Rossman (31), the protective factors in those exposed to child abuse are male gender, lack of ongoing violence and attending more treatment sessions. There are many resilience factors to child abuse. Reyes (51) examined 2 resilience factors in her study on exploring the relations among nature of abuse in children subjected to sexual abuse. The resilience factors were perceived parental support and self-concept. Carla opined that parental support did not contribute to the variance in relation to trauma symptoms. According to Dale and Allen (1998, cited in Cowley, pg. 72, 2008), there are 6 types of memory in those subjected to childhood abuse. In their study, the most common memory type which occurred in 25 percent of individuals was "known on some level but kept out of mind." The next common types which were observed were "continuous" and "unexpected, surprising recovery of memories." In about 16.5 percent of individuals "some continuous and some recovered" type of memory occurred and 2.5 percent had memories subsequent to therapeutic suggestion. Recovery of memories is dependent on age of onset, duration and severity of abuse and number of abusers (Cowens 74). Early age of onset of abuse is associated with periods of partial or full amnesia for child abuse (Cowens, 74) Identification of child abuse Teachers, parents, relatives, school counselors, family physicians and pediatricians have a critical role in identifying child abuse. While obvious physical signs and symptoms like unexplained bruises in different stages of healing, human bite marks, welts, unexplained abrasions, fractures and other injuries, hint towards abuse, certain physical aspects like being dressed inappropriately to weather, wearing ill fitting shoes or clothes, wearing dirty clothes, all point to abuse of the child. Behavioral signs like hyperactiveness, aggressiveness, destructive or disruptive behavior, severe apprehensiveness for physical contact, lack of emotion to hurt, fear of parents or caregivers and shy or passive nature point to child abuse. One classical feature that can be noticed in abused children is being frequently late to school or being tardy. Signs of sexual abuse are not going to be easily visible (McDonald 224). This is because; most of the signs are in and around the genitalia which are covered and since children feel shy about their experiences, they try to hide signs of such an experience. However, educators must try and identify sexual abuse because; many a times, sexual abuse is repetitive and can result in lasting psychological impact. Certain signs and symptoms which are indicative of sexual abuse include sleep disturbances, difficulty in sitting and walking, bruising in the genitalia, venereal disease, frequent urinary tract infections, teenage pregnancy, inappropriate sexual activity, bedwetting, speech loss, unwillingness to take part in physical education and poor interpersonal relationships (McDonald 223). As discussed before, emotional abuse is almost invisible, but children suffer silently, thus affecting their academic performance and mental development. Some of the pointers for emotional abuse include delayed emotional development, speech disorders, development of certain habit disorders like sucking and biting, low self esteem, aggressive, demanding and angry behavior, attention-seeking behavior, conduct disorders, depression and suicidal ideation. Thus, each and every child with these changes in behavior and development must be evaluated for the possibility of emotional abuse (McDonald 223). Certain children may not be suffering abuse, but they may be subjected to neglect which can hamper their physical and mental development and also curb their academic and professional achievement. Hence, it is very important to identify and counsel children who are neglected too. Signs of neglect include lack of consistent supervision, paleness, listlessness, constant hunger, poor hygiene, presence of lice, distended abdomen, poor social skills, regular fatigue, stealing of food and frequent absenteeism at school (National Research Council 208- 211). Until the 1970s child abuse was considered a family problem and intrusion by outsiders was minimal. The Child Abuse and Prevention Act or CAPTA instituted in the year 1974 has led to great interest in this subject from legal and research point of view. In 2003, the Keeping Children and Families Safe Act of 2003 added to the protection of CAPTA and since then child abuse has been a national problem with many agencies and organizations working to prevent it (Lawson 204). Providing support to families, parents and students Most of the times, the perpetrators of abuse are parents. Research has shown that these people are usually in the young-age group with poor economic status and poor education status too. Such parents may need support in the form of provision of support, resources and skills. Counselors can work collaboratively with other community agencies to help the parents and families so that potential for abuse is reduced. Providing support to new parents New parents are always stressed and have high levels of anxiety and they need proper information and support. Certain programs like teaching of nonviolent discipline techniques, prenatal care education, and techniques to meet the physical, emotional and developmental needs of the child and also stress management skills can help alleviate anxiety in the families and thus reduce the chances of abuse. Some parents may even need help for financial planning and also occupational training (National Research Council 255). Formation of parental support groups Formation of parent support groups is one strategy to prevent child abuse in which experienced parents may help inexperienced ones as to how to handle stress, frustration and anger. Abuse is a cyclical phenomenon. Many parents who abuse have not seen healthy parenting and this can be observed when involved in parent support groups. Parent support groups also help exchange knowledge between parents and reduce isolation. (National Research Council 257). Childs life skills training Maschi, Morgen, Keith et al (135) stressed on the importance of implementing policy and practice strategies which include early identification, holistic assessment and comprehensive treatment for children subjected to child abuse. The treatment must address various issues like that of behavioral, psychological and emotional. Children need to be taught to obtain proper resources and support in the right time when abused. Children must also be provided with skills to prevent abuse. This can be achieved by life skills training which can be provided by professional school counselors. Aspects of training include coping with stress and crisis, decision-making skills, being responsible for actions, decision-making ability enhancement, personal body protection and self-concept building (National Research Council 257). Conclusion Child abuse and neglect is a common problem worldwide and merits attention because of the deleterious consequences it has on the physical, psychological and developmental aspects of a child. An understanding of the prevalence and consequences of the condition, knowledge of ethical and legal issues associated with abuse and ability to identify signs and symptoms of abuse are cornerstone skills for effective prevention and management of child abuse and neglect. References Crowley, Sue. "Three types of memory for childhood sexual abuse. Relationships to characteristics of Abuse and Psychological Symptoms" Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. 2009: 71-87. Print. Lawson, David. "Understanding and Treating Children Who Experience Interpersonal Maltreatment: Empirical Findings" Journal of Counseling & Development. September 2009: 204-215. Print. McDonald, Kelly. "Child Abuse: Approach and Management" American Family Physician. January 2007: 221- 228. Print. Pollak, Seth, Vardi Shira, Bechner Anna and Curtin John. "Physically Abused Children’s Regulation of Attention in Response to Hostility" Child Development. September/October 2005: 968-977. Print. National Research Council . "Understanding Child Abuse and Neglect" Washington: National Academy Press. Print. Rossman, Robbie. "Time heals all : How much and for whom ?" Journal of Emotional Abuse. 2000: 31-50. Print. Reyes, Carla. "Exploring the Relations among the Nature of the Abuse, Perceived Parental Support, and Childs Self-Concept and Trauma Symptoms among Sexually Abused Children" Journal of Child Sexual Abuse. April 2008: 51-70. Print Shipman, Kimberly, Schneider Renee, Fitzgerald Monica, Sims Chandler, Swisher Lisa, Edwards AnnaMaternal. "Emotion Socialization in Maltreating and Non-Maltreating Families: Implications for Childrens Emotion Regulation" Social Development. May 2007: 268- 285. Print. Read More