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Essay: definition of emotional abuse
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Essay: definition of emotional abuse
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Although all therapists are aware of the childhood emotional abuse issue, it is possible that only few therapists understand the scope of the issue. Emotional maltreatment is harder to detect than other forms of abuse because it is more subtle. When Child Protective Services (CPS) conduct family assessments, it is the hardest form of abuse to prove because parents are very open about the topic and emotional abuse does not leave any physical evidence behind. However, it certainly influences a child's self-esteem, promotes the feeling of guilt, insecurity, and creates the inability to form stable relationships during adulthood. Although some behavioral disorders are related to emotional abuse, it is not possible to predict it correctly because the patterns can deviate significantly as each child displays different outcomes. Emotional abuse is often considered a suitable form of disciplinary measures, but even excessive practice of verbal abuse can create negative outcomes, so the parents apparently take most of the responsibility because of their inability to raise their child without resorting to violence. Besides parental education, other courses of action will be required because the abuse rates for emotional abuse and other types of child abuse are extremely high, so the issue demands urgent action to prevent further impairment on healthy psychological development in children. However, the entire responsibility should not be on mental health care professionals, but it should be distributed equally through society and all social agents that determine public opinions and acceptable forms of behavior. The best approach to preventing childhood emotional abuse is through influencing several social factors for prevention and increasin... ... middle of paper ... ...standing, adult women who display violence over their children are in the position to abuse their power of parenting over their children, so they have responsibilities for using violence over children (Damant et al., 2011). The fact that they are victimized themselves does not approve their actions against their children. As psychologically developed and responsible beings, both parents take responsibility for interactions within the family. Understanding the complexity of family structure and dynamic interpersonal relationships is the key to proposing and conducting simultaneous interventions from several dimensions for preventing child abuse, but isolation of single factors is not possible. Without a broad understanding of how all factors interact and contribute to an abusive environment, narrow focus will only solve an insignificant amount of the entire problem.
Currently, there are many children whom suffer from emotional, physical, and sexual abuse in their family. Emotional abuse is the lack of interest or affection parents have towards their children. As a result of emotional abuse, children are left feeling worthless and unloved. Physical abuse refers to attacking children resulting visible bodily injuries from either being burned, pushed, punched, slapped, or whipped. Sometimes physical abuse can be extremely severe that children have broken bones, fractures, or hemorrhaging. Sexual abuse occurs when a person forces, tricks, or threatens children to have sexual contact. These acts of child abuse could prevent children from living a normal adulthood. In order to deal with such a traumatic childhood, adults abused as children should rid themselves of such burdensome, painful memories.
Psychological maltreatment, like many other forms of abuse can also be passed down through intergenerational transmission. It is not unlikely for parents to psychologically mistreat their children due to their own past or childhood experiences with psychologically abuse. For example, it is not uncommon during the course of an investigation of physiological maltreatment that it is discovered that the perpetrator had their own form of abuse history in the past. Often time’s people look at psychological maltreatment as a consequence resulting from some other form of abuse, mainly physical and sexual, but tend to overlook the fact that it may also occur as an individual form. Psychological maltreatment can take more than one form. During the course of researching for this paper I learned that there are three typical forms of behavior in which people follow when displaying this type of abuse against children. The three types are acting in an aggressive, rejecting, and lessening
The article, The Long- Term Impact of Emotional Abuse in Childhood: Identifying Mediating and Moderating Processes by Margaret O’Doughterty Wright, addresses the impacts of emotional abuse in childhood and its long-term consequences. This type of abuse has not received much attention in comparison to other forms of mistreatment such as physical or sexual abuse (Wright, 2007). Now that we are taking into account the severity of this form of maltreatment, we recognize that emotional abuse plays a significant role and is involved in all other types of neglect as well (Wright, 2007). Since it has been difficult to define exactly what emotional abuse entails, determining what constitutes a case of maltreatment has
The effects of abuse tend to vary with different children but any type of abuse can cause serious damage. Not all children display the same responses to physical and emotional abuse. A few of the typical emotional responses include; showing excessive fear, extreme anger, low self-esteem, and an inability to trust adult figures. In contrast a few physical responses are difficulties developing speech patters, difficulties getting involved with other ch...
After many studies researchers have confirmed that when children are exposed to intimate partner violence (IPV) it significantly effects their social emotional development (Hughes & Chau, 2013; Herman-Smith, 2013). This raises a concern; if IPV was to be measured emotional abuse should children be removed from their families. If we consider that the majority of children that witness IPV are under six and would not be able to fully understand what is happening we can conclude that they would not be able to report their maltreatment (Hughes & Chau, 2013). If either partner also chooses not to report the abuse it may continue and it would impact the child; the child could experience mental and behavioral problems. Therefore programs should be introduced to care givers that are dealing with aggression problems so that they can understand that their temperament and actions do affect their children both directly and indirectly.
Did you know that approximately one third of Canadians have experienced child abuse (CBC Radio, 2014) and that approximately 10.4% of Canadians have a mental illness (Mood Disorders Society of Canada, 2009)? That’s three million, five hundred thousand people dealing with mental illnesses. These are uncommon conversation topics in today’s society, because most people do not like to talk about it. The two statistics above are connected; many people who experience abuse are prone to mental illness. When a child is sexually abused, or physically abused, there are visual effects on the person. Everyone knows the signs of a sexually abused victim but, most people do not recognize or even know the effects of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is the hidden scars; the scars that people do not see that can cause a lifetime of abuse. These invisible scars can affect a person’s development from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, as an individual struggles to accept their self. Emotional abuse negatively impacts an individual’s self-esteem, which in turn can cause depression and substance abuse later in adulthood.
Can anyone possibly imagen the types of abusive traumas that children experience and how can they impact their lives? A child experiencing trauma at a young age could be very crucial for their development. Childhood trauma can range from minor to complex. An event occurring in a community where a child resides can impact trauma on a child. On the contrary, there are events that can be way more complex, such as a domestic violence involving a child. There are a few signs that children show, to notify someone that they have experienced trauma. The signs can vary depending on the age group of the child. Trauma can also lead children to develop stress at an early age. In addition to withdrawal from normal activities as well. The types
Abuse can happen to anyone, at any age, at any time. This is repetitive acts of behavior of wanting to maintain power and have control over someone whether it be through childhood, adolescents, or adulthood. This subject is sensitive as it impacts so many different people around the world. The topic of abuse is not just a family matter, it comes in all forms, such as sexual, emotional, and physical. Abuse is accompanied by the long term emotional tolls, especially on children because their brains are still developing and can take abuse harder than others. One question to ask, is how does one overcome abuse? As children and adolescents develop, how do they function emotionally and physically? These traumatic experiences that happen through
How does domestic violence between parents and parental figures affect the children who witness it? This is a question often asked by Sociologists and Psychologists alike. There have been studies that prove that children who witness domestic inter-parental violence experience mental health problems, issues with gender roles, substance abuse, the committing of crimes and suicide/suicide attempts later in their lives. This paper will explore all five of these 'effects' of domestic violence on children and show that there is evidence of a clear relationship in which increasing parental violence is associated with increasing outcome risks (Fergusson & Horwood, 1998, p.8).
Domestic abuse and child abuse have widespread social and emotional costs. Family violence affects all segments of the family. The impact of violence on childrens' lives appears to be far more substantial than the impact on adults lives(Family, Pg. 1). In most cases of family violence the family has conformed to a pattern in which the line of family violence started generations ago. This pattern must be broken before more children growup and live in a family that resorts to violence. But there are also children who live in loving families who do not resort to violence and as these children mature they start resorting to violence to help solve and deal with their problems. Studies show that physical punishment could cause aggression in children, but other studies show that even abusive parental violence does not always lead to an increase in children's aggression. Only by recognizing and addressing the multifactorial roots of violence in our society can we move closer to living in peace.
Violence is displayed everywhere in society through media like entertainment, in their schools and communities, and within their homes. It is difficult to imagine living in a world without some sort of violence due to it being so prevalent in society. Many children have been exposed to violence in their own homes or have become victims leaving detrimental short and long term effects. There are three forms of domestic violence in the homes. They are physical, sexual, emotional abuse. People often think of domestic violence as having bruises or a broken arm, but in reality it is an occurrence that happens repeatedly over a period of time. One study concluded “children in domestic violence shelters found that almost half their mothers had
Childhood molestation is more common than the average person may think. My cousins and I were molested by my grandfather as children and some, even as teenagers. The trauma of being molested has caused me to be angry for a long time. It effected my childhood and my teenage years. This childhood trauma still continues to effect me in my adult life and my personal relationships. Being molested as a child was the worst thing to ever happen to me.
When the topic of abuse comes up, many different forms of abuse pop into individuals heads. Whether its Physical abuse, sexual abuse, verbal abuse or even drug abuse, the list just keeps going. Now take all those different forms abuse and imagine them happening in a family. A father physically abusing his children, a mother verbally berating her daughter about her body image, a child growing up in fear. According to the research by David Wolfe in the Journal of Consulting and clinical Psychology, that the number of children that have suffered a physical injury due to physical abuse is between 1.4 and 1.9 million annually. With such a high number of physical abuse happening to children, one can imagine how high the number of all the
“Domestic violence is a violent confrontation between family or household members involving physical harm, sexual assault, or fear of physical harm” (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). In most places, domestic violence is looked at as one of the higher priorities when trying to stop crime. Domestic violence cases are thought to be influenced by the use of alcohol, drugs, stress or anger, but in reality, they are just learned behaviors by the batterer. These habits can be stopped as long as one seeks help (Stewart & Croudep, 1998-2012). For instance, a child is brought up in a household that is constantly involved in criminal acts.
There is a substantial body of evidence suggesting that violence in the family is a risk factor for the perpetration of partner abuse. Men who witnessed interparental violence were three times more likely to hit their wives than men who did not (Ronfeldt 72). Men who witnessed their fathers hitting their mothers were more likely to approve of violence against women and to abuse their own partner. Those growing up in a violent home were more likely to move from verbal to physical aggression. Witnessing paternal marital violence would moderate the association between psychologically controlling behaviors and physical violence so that the association would be stronger for individuals who had witnessed paternal marital violence (Ronfeldt 73).