The Negative Effects Of Child Maltreatment

It is my opinion that childhood maltreatment is a serious social problem that effects the entire family unit. Throughout the early childhood years, the environmental behavior are considerable factor in the life of a developing child. The environment can adversely affect an individual in a positive or negative that creates irreparable damage.

A person who is physically abused reacts in society differently then others. The way a person interact socially molds the way society accepts and works with them. Teisl and Cicchetti (2008) study showed that children who are maltreated are more aggressive and disruptive them those who are not maltreated. People develop the basis how is it appropriate to act in society at a young age. When trauma takes place, like physical abuse, it disrupts the process. Some research done on students in high school has shown that the abuse had lower effectiveness. This may mean that the students are able to develop effective coping skills or that the full effects have not yet emerged (Kamsner & McCabe, 2000). It was made known

The safety and security of many children across the world are in danger due to physical abuse. Child abuse has been linked to an assortment of changes in the brain which result in psychological, behavioral, and academic problems. While it is unclear whether the population that had been maltreated as children is accurate, physical maltreatment in the first 5 years of life places a child at risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems during adolescence. The following three literature reviews attempts to prove and support the premise.

Two factors correlating mental health and child development are abuse and neglect. All forms of abuse from physical, sexual, and emotional have a great impact on the consciousness of a child. Due to the damage abuse causes in their psychological development, children express themselves through their emotions and behavior (Mondal & Das, 2014). The physical aspect is the first thing that comes to mind when we come across the word abuse. It does not only stop at the visible scars and bruises, children can also be abused emotionally. Naturally, a child gravitates their biological mother, when the love and nurturing is absent and instead the void

There are significant signs of psychological trauma due to any kind of abuse. Children experience feelings of low self esteem and depression. Many exhibit behavioral problems including aggression towards other children. Other emotional problems include hostility, fear, humiliation and the inability to express feelings. The social impacts of physical abuse include inability to form relationships, poor social skills, poor cognitive language skills, distrust of others, over-compliance with authority figures, and tendency to solve interpersonal problems with aggression. (2008, p. 1). Verbal and physical abuse has a cumulative impact on children’s socialization. Abused children are caught in damaged relationships and are not socialized in positive, supportive way (Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010, p. 196). They learn defiance, manipulation and other problem behaviors that are used to escape any maltreatment. In turn they will learn to exploit, degrade and terrorize.

It has been known, for many years, that childhood maltreatment, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, interparental violence, and sexual abuse, has an adverse effect on a developing child. These effects have been thought to be linked to adults later having cognitive deficits and mental disorders when compared to adults with no history of childhood maltreatment (Tomoda, Polcari, Anderson, & Teicher, 2012). It has also been shown that adults who experience childhood maltreatment are more prone to many medical illnesses than their healthy counterparts (Keeshin, Cronholm, & Strawn, 2012). With more recent advances in technology, scientists have been able to research exactly how childhood maltreatment affects development through methods such as MRI, fMRI, and genetic tests (Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, 2012). Using these findings, scientists have begun to show how childhood maltreatment affects adults later in life. The following literature will support the claim that childhood maltreatment leads to abnormal neurological development which can later have adverse effects on the adult’s mental and physical health.

Victimization comes in many different forms such as assault, child physical/sexual abuse, stalking, theft, rape, sexual harassment, and domestic/relationship violence. There are several negative outcomes that have been linked with childhood abuse and neglect such as neurobiological changes, emotional and psychiatric disorders, interpersonal issues and substance abuse problems (Min, Singer, Minnes, Kim, & Short, 2012). According to Reid and Sullivan (2009), children and adolescents are very vulnerable and are the most highly victimized individuals of the population and the kinds of victimization that they experience can come in many forms (Finkelhor et al., 2009). This victimization is known as poly-victimization (Finkelhor et al., 2009).

The maltreatment of children occurs at extraordinarily increasing proportions and is becoming a significant health risk to the children it is happening to. One of the major public health concerns should be identifying the risk factors associated with the maltreatment of these children and the just how much resistance these children really have against this abuse. Regardless of how much elasticity the general public in a whole may think these children have against maltreatment, they are still at a major risk of having diminished or compromised psychological and physical health later in life as an adult and are also are at extreme risk for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Children who were not subject to maltreatment are still

The manner in which maltreatment goes on to cause psychopathology can be seen through different avenues, such as the biological, cognitive, behavioral (Textbook), and in the relational.

Of all the reported American child maltreatment in 2013, 79.5% of victims experienced neglect, more than four times the victims that were physically abused (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2013). Neglect is one of the most common forms of child maltreatment and public awareness of this problem was raised in the 1960s by the work of C. Henry Page 1 of 1Kempe which described the battered-child syndrome. It was only then that child maltreatment was regarded as a serious social problem. Since then, a new field has grown, with professionals researching to understand the problem and effective interventions needed and yet, neglect is still often given less attention than child physical and sexual abuse. The signs of neglect are usually less visible than the physical signs of abuse but it is just as detrimental to the general early development of children as abuse. By examining the consequences of neglect in children on their cognitive development, the problem can be slowly addressed and resolved to a certain extent. Not only does it affect cognitive, language and emotional development in children, it can also result in long term consequences such as poor academic performance and attachment problems. However, research has shown that an enriching environment given to the children once they are out of an environment of neglect can promote resilience which to a certain extent can recover the effects of neglect on various aspects of development.

Childhood victimization and maltreatment is a widespread issue that has frequently been a topic of conversation among mental health professionals. While much research has focused on the behavior and treatment of the perpetrator, the abusive parent, a topic of significant concern is the breadth of consequences, both short and long term, that may be faced by the victim of child abuse (Malinosky-Rummell & Hansen, 1992). Short term impacts of abuse can present as lower intellectual functioning or academic achievement, as well as negative social behaviors or depression. Of particular attention are the enduring affects, rather than the immediate consequences, specifically what an adult may look like after experiencing abuse or neglect in their childhood.

Child maltreat includes child abuse and child neglect (Currie & Tekin, 2012). Maltreatment of children could have long-term cost for those that survive. Maltreatment is the leading cause of death from injuries in children older than one years of age (Currie & Tekin, 2012). According to Currie and Tekin (2012), crime is one of the most socially costly potential outcomes from maltreatment. In this instance, criminal acts and behaviors are the leading possible outcome for children if they survive the

Maltreatment in children is described in four different forms those are physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect (Taylor et al., 2016). Roughly 700,000children are victims of abuse or neglect, (Child Abuse Statistics - American SPCC, 2016). Children who experience maltreatment often lack the ability to form secure attachments, because their abuse is often at the hand of immediate family members or close friends, (Child Abuse Statistics - American SPCC," 2016). When the abuser is the mother, the child often learns to become an abuser or exhibits aggressive behavior during their adolescents and adulthood, (Ellenbogen, Trocmé, & Wekerle, 2013). In addition to the possibility of becoming an abuser or an aggressor when children

Every year, child abuse and neglect affect more than one million children nation-wide (Currie and Tekin 1). Along with this, child abuse is the source of severe injury to more than 500,000 children and the death of over 1,500 children (Currie and Tekin 1). These outrageously large numbers reveal the extent to which child abuse and neglect impact society; however, they do not acknowledge the effect abuse can have on a child’s life and the repercussions that may occur in both the individual’s childhood and adulthood. While the effects most certainly include physical pain and possibly future disabilities, child abuse and neglect can also affects the child’s psychological welfare. Psychological effects are often more difficult to recognize,

In the fully-adjusted model, exposure to some (any type) childhood physical maltreatment was associated with a 68% (RRadjusted=1.68, 95% CI: 1.33-2.13) higher risk of perceived social isolation in adulthood, while exposure to severe (both) childhood physical maltreatment was associated with a 57% (RRadjusted=1.57, 95% CI: 1.12-2.21) higher risk (Table 2). In turn, perceived social isolation in adulthood was associated with greater levels (βadjusted=0.14, p<0.001) of internalizing symptoms in adulthood (Table