Emotional Effects of Child Abuse

Research indicates an upsurge in child abuse instances that were reported and recorded over the last few years. Sexual, psychological, and physical maltreatment of children is referred to as child abuse. This category also includes parental or caregiver neglect of the child (Ban and Oh 35). Neglect is when parents or other caregivers fail to act in the best interests of the children by failing to fulfill their obligations. Some of these responsibilities include making sure their kids are properly fed, maintaining their own hygiene and health, and sufficiently providing for all of their basic requirements. Children who are physically abused can be wounded physically, especially by others who are close to them (De Baessa 330). Such harm results to the suffering of children, in form of trauma and injuries. Examples of physical abuse forms include poisoning, hitting, burning, biting and throwing. Not all forms of physical abuse leave visible evidence of abuse acts; instead, they leave trauma. Other forms leave both the injuries and trauma. Therefore, reports estimate that in every group of twenty children, one child is like to experience physical abuse. Sexual abuse takes place when adults involve children sexual activities, through authority and power. Forms of childhood sexual abuse include child prostitution, rape, incest, oral sex and having sexual relations with children. Studies indicate that girls are more prone to and suffer from sexual abuse than boys; with ratios of 1: 4 and 1: 8, respectively (Schwartz-Kenney, 3). Psychological abuse occurs through impairing or threatening children’s intellectual, social and emotional development (Starr and David, 14). Various forms are such as exposure of children to violence, hostility, rejection, bullying and yelling. Such abuse often causes emotional trauma. Other forms of child maltreatment include all forms of exploitation, and trafficking. Child abuse can take place at home, in school, organizations, communities or any setting where children spend time. Not only does child abuse cause harm and trauma, but can also result to the death of victims. As such, this paper gives an insight into child abuse causes and the emotional effects victims suffer from.

Child Abuse Causes

Society seems to set the stage for child abuse. As a result, community, relational and individual factors cause child abuse. Nonetheless, the complexity of the child abuse phenomenon is due to various causes. Complexity in child maltreatment results from the uncertainty about the reasons behind a majority of parents and caregivers’ behavior. Common child abuse causes are cultural norms, social stress and isolation due to low community involvement, intergenerational transmission of violence, economic inequality, substance abuse and family structure (Shumba 789). Society does not condemn adult alcohol consumption. Consequently, consumption of other substances like heroin and cocaine take root. Such substance abuse causes social stress that befalls children since internal anger and confusion of substance abusers turns to frustrations, exhibited through violent behaviors and sexual abuse. Caregivers with substance abuse problems face issues like unemployment and struggle to make ends meet. Others fail to conduct family planning and have large families. The stress from living in poor housing conditions due to unemployment and having excess family members results to child abuse (Noll 604). Cultural norms set rules for children especially in matters regarding discipline. Children get teachings on behavior, respect for elder people and obedience in various communities. Their capability to retain information is different depending on their ages; hence a number of them may lack the capability to heed to teachings. Such children receive a punishment that involves physical hurt in a majority of these cultures and communities, which is child abuse. Research shows that several of child abuse cases result from the physical punishment that became extreme. Other cultural norms include child marriages, female genital mutilation and child labor. During child marriages, some communities force minors to marry adults, especially after receiving consent from their parents. Sexual abuse follows after such marriages, resulting in early pregnancies. It is possible that such children also suffer from physical violence in their marriages. Female genital mutilation involves removal of female genital parts for non-medical reasons. This practice is sexual, physical and emotional torture upon victims. despite it being illegal, it is conducted secretly in some communities. Child labor as well is illegal. Nonetheless, some cultures believe that children must have employment to help their parents. Such exploitation of children is both physical and emotional abuse. It interferes with children’s mental growth as it denies them their childhood and deprives them of education. Additionally, child abuse tends to be common in violent households (Ban and Oh 42). Violence transmitted through generations is identifiable through abuse between spouses. Abusive relationships often result in unintended pregnancies. These type of parents are highly likely to extend such abuse to their children. Recently, family structures seem to be the world leading causes of labor of children. Children brought up by single parents are prone to more child abuse than children with both parents (De Baessa 329). Some of this abuse could be because the children resulting from unwanted pregnancies, while another abuse is due to family disorganization or dissolution. Therefore, the child-parent relationship is of low quality and contains negative interactions. Also, isolation from the larger community due to economic inequality contributes towards maltreatment of children. A majority isolated caregivers and parents lack knowledge in relevant aspects on how to raise children healthily and live in harmony due to lack of education (Cicchetti and Vicki, 48). Therefore, they lack manners and wisdom about living without any violent tendencies with other family members. Lack of understanding of children’s development and needs causes, such parents, to handle their children improperly. Other factors that put children at child abuse risk include mental retardation and disabilities. Caregivers of children with disabilities may view such children as burdens and hence, mistreat them. Due to their vulnerability, a majority of disabled children experience child abuses when among normal children. Therefore, development of effective strategies to reduce child abuse in society is crucial. There should be unity in families, between parents and children, to enable proper growth of children as they learn from society. The potential approaches under development require having the ability to address the diverse effects of child maltreatment (Frias-Armenta 372).

Emotionally Abused Children Signs

Recognizing emotionally abused children is quite a challenge. However, they display signs that differentiate them from other healthy children. “The process of understanding emotionally abused children entails having the right knowledge about the various difficulties and behaviors that emotionally abused children display” (Hughes and Cossar 45). Children find difficulty in expressing themselves and disclose their encounters with their abusers. Lack of expression could be out of fear, since a majority of child abusers tend to threaten the children. Also, a majority of these abusers are unsuspecting people and hence, children hesitate to talk about them because they worry that the listeners will doubt their confessions. In a number of scenarios, the abused children begin liking or loving their abusers since they are the only ones that offer attention (Ban and Oh 41). Therefore, disclosing their abusers becomes hard for them. On the other hand, parents hardly notice child abuse symptoms due to ignorance or because they are afraid of admitting their mistakes or facing reality. Signs displayed by emotionally abused children include poor development. Characteristics of such poor development includes slow learning in basics like talking and walking. Thus, in their early stages of growth they communicate passively and are incapable of being spontaneous. Also, they develop challenges with feeding, which could result to retarded growth or malnutrition (Frias-Armenta 373). Additionally, these children do not trust adults and peers. They show wariness and are uncomfortable around these individuals and therefore, have difficulties in developing close relations. In some cases, they may be antisocial with familiar people around them, while being over-friendly to strangers at the same time. They lack self-confidence since their self-esteem is low. Low self-esteem develops because abused children feel that they do not deserve love. Also abused children may decide to find means to forget their problems. Therefore, they indulge is substance abuse such as alcohol and other drugs. These children may experience sleeping difficulties because of occurrence of nightmares that increases with time. Children that previously did not bed wet may begin to, after abuse actions against them take place. Other abused children begin to have stomachaches and headaches that have no medical cause. A majority of those exposed to violence or are physically abused may develop abnormal fears or adapt to aggressive or demanding behavior such as name calling. Abused children that have talent may let out their pain through their diverse talents, with excuses of creativity. Hence, they often compose artwork, poems and stories of abuse. Depending on abuse environment, children suffering from abuse have sudden change in conducting expected routines. For example, if abuse take place in school, the victims are reluctant to attend school. Similarly, if the abuse takes at home, they are reluctant to return home after school. In both cases, the victims may opt to run away to avoid a repeat. Poor performance in school due to concentration difficulties accompanied by withdraw can help the concerned parties find reasons to investigate. In extreme cases of abuse, children may feel suicidal or make several suicidal attempts.

The Emotional effects

Child maltreatment proves to possess various effects on victims. The effects are emotional because of disruptions during mental development. Therefore, child abuse effects are both short and long-term. Research studies indicate that children who encounter neglect, humiliation, and shame suffer more emotionally than physically. For example, neglecting children makes them develop negative feeling of being unwanted by people around them (Frias-Armenta 375). The emotional problems begin as they reason out the cause of the abuse (Ban and Oh 37). Meaning that, child treatment during growth determines their improper or proper mental development. Exposure of children to unforgiving and harsh environments affects their mental and social development (De Baessa 332). Children with maltreatment history in their lives may experience low self-esteem, insecurities, and retardation in development. A majority of abuse victims develop self-blame and guilt because of actions done against them by abusers. They tend to believe that they are the cause of their problems and hence, a number may develop depression (Wolfe, 10). Depression is what results to self-inflicted bodily harm or suicidal tendencies. Additionally, studies reveal that these problems are the causes of their issues in school, as well as when interacting with their peers. Emotional effects like low self-esteem are long-term because they may affect the victims in adulthood when finding jobs, conducting work activities and when dealing with work colleagues. Abused children develop long-term trust issues with all individuals who try to get close to them, especially in cases where the abusers were close to them (Hughes and Cossar 44). Others distrust and avoid people that seem hostile, because of increased fears and abuse memories. Consequently, the result of such distrust and fears leads to increased cases of withdrawal. Such effects not only happen at the abuse period, but also later in adulthood. Unfortunately, other victims adapt to violence as their response whenever they feel threatened. Exposure of young children to violent environments also causes development issues. These children’s violence is a defense mechanism; an opportunity they did not have in the presence of their abusers. “The children view the entire process as the right way of communicating and doing things” (Frias-Armenta 380). The violence may take place in any environment, such as at home and in school. The emotional consequences of abusing children vary and differ, depending on the ages of the victims; babies and other young children. Babies facing neglect or emotional abuse may develop feelings of affection towards unknown people as opposed to their immediate caregivers and parents (Ban and Oh 36). As mentioned earlier, not only do abused children appreciate the strangers, but also lack confidence in familiar people. Moreover, they start treating them as strangers. The forms of aggressiveness that these children develop due to anxiety disorders developed during mental development is not only towards their peers, but also towards animals (Frias-Armenta 376). Similarly, older children with exposure to abuses begin using foul language. Others may develop bad behaviors, such as bullying, during interaction with friends. Also, they face difficulties in emotion control while among groups of individuals. Struggling with the strong emotions makes them feel vulnerable or unwanted if they disclose. Hence, ultimately they seclude themselves from peers to hide their struggles and bad experiences (Ban and Oh 35). Lack of trust interferes with their social capabilities; thus a majority of abused victims end up with few or no friends. As a result, their key attribute is isolation from peers and parents, which affects their lives significantly (De Baessa 326). Abused children have the potential of developing several disorders like eating and learning disorders, reactive attachment disorder (RAD) and post-traumatic stress disorder. Noll defines reactive attachment disorder as, “a notably distressed and developmentally unsuitable social relatedness that affects children before they attain five years. RAD presents itself as a concurrent failure to initiate or even counter in a developmentally suitable fashion to various social situations and happenings” (605). Significant growth in cases of depression, anxiety, and interpersonal associations challenges are common in society due to children’s long exposure to abuse emotionally. A good number of child abuse victims become drug addicts after long-term drug abuse. As a result, they engage in risky behaviors like criminal and delinquency activities while young and as they mature. The majority of such children end up in juvenile or dead. Therefore, parents and caregivers should understand that exposure of children to child maltreatment results to impacts that could be long or shot term. Hence, avoiding such impact should be a priority. The emotional effects of maltreatment affect them as they grow, causing a huge impact on psychologically and physically development (Shumba 784). The result of these effects is children adopting to bad habits as they grow.

In conclusion, child abuse is a sensitive matter that requires adequate attention due to its effects. Sexual, physical, or psychological mistreatment of children causes emotional wounds that may take longer to heal. Child maltreatment like physical violence can occur at any venue within children surroundings. Such encounters lead to physical, emotional, and psychological effects on children. Amongst these effects, abused children develop disrespect and harshness towards their parents while reasoning the abuses. Self-blame and guilt develops in cases where the victims already experience low self-esteem. A majority do not understand that the blame should be on their parents and caregivers since they have a responsibility to offer protection. Bad performance in school results to dire consequences in the academic lives of child abuse victims. Children capable of achieving great success and becoming doctors, engineers and prominent people end up as drug addicts or die prematurely. Therefore, society needs to act up against children abusers since the future is dependent on these children. The world is at a risk of having violent leaders, parents, increased crime rates and deaths if child abuse goes unnoticed. Where the concerned parties are suspicious about abuse, they should conduct the necessary diagnosis before making conclusions. Depending on the responsible parties, the relevant authorities like child protection agencies should be approached for help. Also, the world should be on the lookout for communities that support practices like child labor, marriages and female genital mutilation. Such communities should receive education on the destruction caused by these practices. Prevention measures are important because they prevent severe situations of abuse. Such measures include programs in schools teaching about abuse of children. Parents should be included in this learning so that they can be aware of their actions and words in the presence of their children and also know how to conduct diagnosis if suspicious. Child protection agencies give advice on the treatment of abused children. As soon as children begin treatment, the adults in charge should ensure the completion of treatment for the full recovery of victims. Society should expose children abusers through various media means and the law should take serious measures against them to set an example.











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