The Effcets Of Different Types Of Abuse On All Aspects Of A Child’s Life
Child abuse was first defined by a forensic science professor Auguste Ambroise Tardieu as “an adult intention an act within a certain time to a child that is not agreed within the related culture”. Child abuse is broadly defined as any type of brutality imposes upon a child, including mental abuse, physical harm, and sexual abuse or mistreatment. The World Health Organization categories child abuse into four types. These are sexual abuse, emotional or psychological abuse, physical abuse.
Child abuse can also in the form of child neglect, when an able caregiver fail to afford basic needs, sufficient food, clothing, hygiene, management shelter, supervision, medical care, or any support to the child. Today, economic abuse has been added to this classification.
Epidiomology
According to research “one out of every eight young people around the world said they had been “mistreated”. It is a worldwide problem with no cultural, societal, and racial bounds.
Physical child abuse involves the direct imposition of pains and injuries into a child.
sychological abuse, on the other hand, is the turturing or harsive acts to produce emotional harm or threat of harm. In discrimination to physical abuse, these turturing behaviors are not directed toward the target’s body integrity, but are instead directed at the recipient’s sense of self-worth.
Psychological abuse are often reduce another person’s self-esteem and Mental happiness, while physical abuse leads the victim to some form of physical pain or hurt.
Sexual child abuse refers to any act in which a person forced the child to a immoral action or trick sexual interaction with a child. Such immoral sexual interaction may include kissing, huging, oral sex, anal sex, homoseuality, and contact. Child abuse and its effects on mental and physical health.
Psychological child abuse pass on to acts such as scorn a child, threatening to harm a child, and other emotional abuses. The psychological child abuse may not cause direct physical harm to the child, but may have long-term mental health consequence that are just as destructive as physical abuse or neglect.
Psychologically abused children have been shown to have lower self-efficiency, high depression, lower self-esteem, and increased risk of posttraumatic stress disorders than non-mistreated children 5 Victims of child psychological violence are also more likely than others to account physical health problems such as arthritis, constant pain, migraine, sexually transmitted diseases, and stomach ulcers.
One of the etiological factors for child depression and anxiety disorders is mal attachment of the child to its caregivers which relates to mental child abuse or neglect. assume that children have an evolutionary affinity to behave in ways that increase closeness to their caregivers. Children are physically equipped with oral and nonverbal behaviors that bring out certain instinctive nurturing responses from their caregivers.
The kindliness of the caregiver's response determine the security of the child in the relationship. According to Pelaez-Nogueras, Gewirtzk, Field, and Cigales confirmed that touch from caregiver’s bring out positive emotions and interest from almost all children. Attachment involves hug, cuddle, and caress that children naturally receive from their primary caregivers. The early attachment experience make the child form an “internal working model” of the self. Anxious early attachment experiences lead individuals to form internal working models that interfere with other relationships. Thus, children's anxious behavior may be related to their insight and experience of the availability and accessibility of the caretaker in the role of cover and protector. The absence of secure attachment obtains feelings of neglect which, in this context, is a form of psychological abuse. It has been assume that rude parents have extra unrealistic and rigid expectations for children, and that they perceive their children’s behavior more negatively than do outside observers.
Often time, these parents trait hostile target to their children’s behavior, and easily become angered, which might lead to turing parenting styles or abuse of their children. In addition, children can be harmed indirectly via the stress in the home. Other researchers have also reported that exposure of children to negative forms of marital clashes and domestic violence is linked with children’s aggressiveness, emotional distress, and risk of adjustment problems. The abused child learn from his or her experiences that their feelings are unimportant and not valuable which result in low self-worth and an impairment of a solid sense of identity.
Researchers have been reported that a significant number of abused children develop into psychologically neurotic adults. Child abuse has also been associated with the development and diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In a study examining adults with child sexual abuse histories, Rodriguez, Ryan, Rowan and Foy reported that 72% of their model met full DSM-III criteria for current PTSD, while 86% met criteria for lifetime PTSD. Rowan, Foy, Rodriguez, & Ryan found that of 47 adults who disclose histories of childhood sexual abuse, 69% met full DSM-III criteria for PTSD, whereas another 19% met criteria for partial PTSD. Further, child sexual abuse has also been associated with mood disorders, anxiety disorders, conduct disorders, substance abuse disorders, suicidal behaviors and with borderline personality disorder, chronic headaches, maladaptive sexual behavior, irritable bowel syndrome, dissociative behaviors, depression, alcoholism, panic disorder, and social phobia.
Neglect and other forms of abuse may also be associated with neuromotor handicaps, such as central nervous system damage, bodily defects, growth and psychological retardation, and speech problems. Recent studies have also found that there is an association between childhood abuse and hormonal disturbance, noticeable in a dysregulation of the HPA (hypothalamic pituitary adrenal). In addition, childhood abuse also has strong links to later health problems, including heart disease, liver disease, cancer and chronic lung disease.
Sexual abuse is linked to distressed mental health resulting in self-harm, unsuitable sexualised behaviour, sadness, depression and loss of self-esteem. These adverse effects may suffer into adulthood. Childhood sexual abuse has been linked with high levels of, disgrace guiltiness, depression, self-blame, eating disorders, somatic concerns, anxiety, dissociative patterns, suppression, denial, sexual problems, and relationship problems. Research of Ratican describes the symptoms of sexual abuse child depression to be falling down much of the time, having disturbed sleeping patterns, suicidal ideation, disturbed eating patterns sex abused often practice shame, guilt, and self-blame. Sex abused child often blame themselves and internally negative messages about themselves and tend to display more self-destructive behaviors and experience more suicidal ideation than those who have not been abused. sexual abuse victims may experience difficulty in, making interpersonal relationships. Symptoms linked with childhood sexual abuse may hinder the development and growth of relationships. frequent relationship difficulties that victims may experience are difficulties with trust, fear of closeness, fear of being different or weird, complexity establishing interpersonal limitations, inactive behaviors, and involved in abusive relationships.
A study done on the prevalence and predictors of sexual dysfunction in the Untied States and revealed that victims of sexual abuse may faces difficulties with sexual problems more than the general population. They found that male victims of childhood sexual abuse were more likely to face a disease called erectile dysfunction, premature ejaculation, and low sexual desire, and they found that women were more likely to have arousal disorders.
Child physical abuse is difficult to diagnosis primarily because clinicians are doubtful to accept that caretakers can injure children. The diagnosis is further complex by the reality that caretakers rarely disclose abuse, or effected children cannot provide a history, and signs and symptoms of physical abuse may be slight and confused with other common pediatric diagnoses. Clinicians must appreciate that with few exceptions, almost any injury can be either abusive or unintentional.
Strategies that reduse child abuse
School base
Prevention programs are intervention against sexual abuse. The literature indicates that the most effective and widely used method for the prevention of sexual violence and abuse consists of school programs that cover primary and secondary school students. Such programs gain relevance that abused youngster deprived from strong family support. In this sense, the school may consider the only source of care and protection of students who are at risk.
Government researches recommend that state institutions such as ministry of women, social, and gender protection must formed a protective measures and effective policies to control the incidence of physical and psychological child abuse in the country. Legal policies may be used to reduce or prevent physical child abuse; education, affective training, as well as attitudinal change may be effective control measures against psychological child abuse.
Religious stakeholder researchers also recommend the use of religious campaign and advocacy to fight against the incidence of child abuse also effective. Moreover, members of the religious groups usually have high respect for their religious leaders. In this sense, any advocacy message carried by religious leaders on evils of child abuse is likely to yield positive results on their followers.
Health care providers
Health professionals such as nurses, midwives, doctors, dentists, and social workers should be urged to ‘observe’ a child’s appearance and behaviour, and look out for any physical or emotional signs of abuse. If a health professional suspects possible maltreatment they should seek an explanation from the child in an open and sensitive way and consult an expert such as a community paediatrician. They should also try to gather information from other agencies and the child should be seen again at some point in the future. However, if there is compelling evidence to suggest that a child is being abused, they should be immediately referred to social services.
Conclusion
Evidence states that the experience of abuse can have major long-term effects on all aspects of a child’s health, growth and intellectual development and psychological wellbeing and that it can impair their functioning as adults. Physically abused children are more likely to suffer lower self-worth than non-abused children. Physically abused children are more possible to be more depressed than non-abused children. Psychologically abused children are more likely to be more depressed as compared to non-abused children. Whenever children are neglected socially and emotionally, they begin to develop a sense of loneliness that naturally leads them to experience feelings of depression.