Dimensions of Emotional Maltreatment of School Adolescents at Home - Essay Example

Dimensions of Emotional Maltreatment of School Adolescents at Home: Implications for Counselling Practice Summary This paper looks into the topic ofemotional abuse/maltreatment among children originating from parents/guardian. The investigators note that human beings at birth are naturally inclined to express their pleasant and unpleasant dispositions to people and life events around them. They further note that unpleasant feeling is a sign of emotional maltreatment by significant others. The paper looks critically at the diagnostic tools that have been developed to identify cases of emotional abuse among children to which it is realized that these tools are inadequate since they are biased and do not handle the specific task for which they were meant to measure. Consequently, the diagnostic tools of emotional maltreatment have a shortcoming as they have failed to accommodate the diverse magnitudes of emotional abuse, rather employing a holistic approach. As a result, some dimensions of emotional abuse are disregarded or simply not given the attention they deserve. Similarly, there is also a significant number of persons who do not know whether they have been emotionally abused while some researchers on this subject have placed more emphasis on children and couples or given very little attention to adolescents despite various researches pointing out that emotional turbulence was a natural occurrence during the adolescent period. As a result of these flaws, the researchers contend that there is a need to come up with a holistic design instrument that would identify all dimensions of emotional abuse at all developmental stages of life. In addition, it is critical to augment current knowledge on psychological abuse of adolescents by their parents and guardian and eradicate the effect of psycho-socio-educational variables with an aim of recognizing the dimension(s) that require prompt intervention (Gesinde 45). Paper Structure The standard structure recommended for journal articles is as follows: abstract, background, research problem and/or objectives and hypothesis if applicable, research methodology (sampling, research instruments, research design, and data collection and analysis), research findings and discussion, implication and recommendations for future research. This paper follows a similar structure, albeit with a few modifications. The paper begins with an abstract that summarizes the whole article in one page. From the abstract, readers have cognizance of the objective of the project, the main findings and the implications of these findings on counseling profession. Next, the author gives background information regarding the subject of the research. In this section, readers get to have background information on emotional maltreatment, particularly among adolescents, and how it relates to the objective of the study. The author makes reference to several refereed papers in an attempt to inform readers of the current knowledge and progress on the topic of emotional abuse. References to refereed articles on the same topic add credence to this paper. This section also exposes the gap that identified initially and which led to the inception of the research and hence supports the need for further research. The introductory section is followed by a statement of the problem that is based on the background information earlier, but in a shorter and more precise form. The authors lay bare the fact that emotional abuse is too intricate and perilous to be left unattended to in terms of research and development of treatment packages. The objectives of the research are next to be identified and are simply worded from the problem statement. Three objectives that will be guide the study are identified. The significance of the study, research question and research hypothesis follow. Methodology The methodology of this research follows and from this section, readers learn that a descriptive survey design will be adopted for the study. This design adopted combines both survey and descriptive analysis, i.e. data collection will be conducted through surveys and descriptive tools used to define the data collected. Still on the methodology, it is learnt that the target population for the study was all adolescents in private secondary schools in Ota, Ogun State, Nigeria. A sample size of 480 was selected, of which 44.79% were males while 265 representing 52.20% were females. The sample was also randomized on the type of family they came from with 421(87.71%) coming from monogamous family while 59 (12.29%) came from polygamous families. The proportion of respondents coming from monogamous families were significantly higher than those from polygamous families, hence findings arising from this research may not be easily applicable to the latter group. Data Collection, Analysis and Discussion A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. This mode of data collection was preferred since it is less expensive as compared to other methods such as face-to-face or phone interviews, permits anonymity and may result in more honest responses, does not require a lot of staff, and it eliminates bias due to phrasing questions differently with different respondents. On the downside, this method cannot be used with illiterate respondents, there is often a low rate of response, and the questions may be misunderstood by respondents (Creswell 32). The researcher could possibly combine questionnaires with other methods, such as use of secondary materials or direct interviews. Data analysis involved computation of summary/descriptive statistics of mean, standard deviation and rank-order while the t-test was used as a confirmatory test. From the analysis, several observations were made. First, no significant difference existed between males and females with respect to their mean scores of experiencing emotional maltreatment at home. Secondly, the mean score of adolescents from polygamous homes was found to be higher than that for adolescents from polygamous homes. However, as mentioned earlier, the sample was biased towards adolescents from monogamous homes and hence these findings are subject to further analysis. The analysis of data clearly points out that adolescents suffered seven types of emotional abuse at home of which the most commonly used form was isolation and the least was corrupting. The research also revealed that males are frequently abused emotionally than females. However, the difference was not significant at .05 level of alpha. The researcher next discusses the findings with reference to the research objective. Gesinde (46) contends that the emergence of isolation (which occurs when parent or caregiver consistently prevents the child from having normal social interactions with peers, family members and adults) as the most common form of emotional maltreatment among adolescents is surprising since traditional African culture gives room for social interaction (extended family structure) in and out of home. He blames this observation on the adoption of western culture. However, it is not surprising that corrupting (which occurs when a child is taught, encouraged or forced to develop inappropriate or illegal behaviors) comes last since it is very unusual of an African parent to force his/her children to engage in anti-social behaviors even if they themselves did the same. The lack of significant difference between the scores relating to genders is attributed to the general characteristics of adolescents. Adolescents, regardless of gender, are inclined to assume that they are commensurate with the adults and act accordingly but now and again discover that the adults do not accept them on equal term, consequently, to defend themselves, they engage in all sort of anti-social behavior which further sets them on the war path with adults. Relevance of Article This article is relevant to clinical practice and has several implications to the practice. It informs of the forms of emotional abuse that adolescents undergo both at home and at school. It also informs of the most common forms of emotional abuse and this information could be used by clinical practitioners to create specific intervention strategies to prevent emotional maltreatment. The researcher had earlier opined to the fact that some dimensions of emotional abuse have been disregarded or not given the attention they deserve, hence the findings from this study will help improve the intervention outcomes. From the implications, we can further see the importance of this research. The research showed that adolescents undergo emotional maltreatment at home hence there is need to investigate factors relating to this and remedial action taken. Besides, there is the need for counselors to facilitate the passage of legislation against emotional abuse of adolescents at both homes and schools. Seminars and workshops could also be used to sensitize parents on the risks of adolescent emotional abuse and to update their knowledge and correct misgivings and misconceptions about adolescent behaviors. Adolescents also require education on the phase of life in which they are. Counselors should therefore educate them on the adjustment tactics that will minimize or remove conflict with parents in particular and adults in general. Conclusion and Recommendation The study investigated emotional abuse/maltreatment among children originating from parents/guardians. The researcher uses a survey descriptive methodology. It is observed that the sample of respondents originating from monogamous families was significantly disproportionate to that from polygamous families. Hence, to improve the credibility of the research, this factor must be taken into account. Alternatively, the researcher could take account of the anomaly in the analysis by, for example, giving different weights to the two groups to make the findings more credible. Work Cited Creswell, John W. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among the five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1998. Print. Gesinde, A. M. Dimensions of Emotional Maltreatment of School Adolescents at Home: Implications for Counselling Practice. Ife PsychologIA, 19(1): 2011. 41-55. Read More