Child Abuse and Neglect

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Child maltreatment is a global public health problem (Klika & Herrenkol, 2013). Children who have been maltreated tend to express more cortisol dysregulation (De Bellis, Woolley, & Hooper, 2013). Having this concern causes the children to express more stress than a child who has not been maltreated. According to De Bellis, Woolley, & Hooper (2013), pediatric studies have concluded that if a child is abused at a younger age and continuous neglect is associated they are more likely to suffer from smaller brain volumes and heightened biological stress chemicals. Being exposed to abusive trauma that leads to PTSD has shown to cause children to have higher levels of dissociative symptoms and more behavioral problems (De Bellis, Woolley, & Hooper, 2013). Children tend to mimic behaviors that are observed by their guardians or parents, and it is likely that at some point a child will express those same behaviors, but most likely in a different way. Being abused can often lead to a reenactment of that same attempt of punishment on the child’s future family.
There are many mental concerns associated with childhood abuse that can be major factors in the future of the child. Some children who have been abused go on to live balanced lives, whereas other struggle mentally in various aspects of life. A maltreated child has chances of showing symptoms of bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, the necessity for social dominance, depression, dissociative identity disorder, as well a suicidal thoughts. Now, even though not only abused children develop into these various mental challenges, there are at a heightened exposure to these mental diseases as a result of their childhood trauma.
Child abuse is has been an ongoing epidemic that has affected the ...

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