Summary of the Proposed Article
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
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I was able to make many connections to familiarities in my personal life and in my career as an educator. The article facilitated a personal reflection of my experiences with loved ones, or students, whom portrayed similar behaviors that were identified as the mannerisms of emotionally abused individuals. Difficult students in my class and in our school, exhibit nearly all of the behaviors addressed in the article, which allowed me to construct many commonalities for the reasons of their behaviors. Furthermore, applying the saying, children learn what they live, was insinuated in one particular study; “a child expects others to treat him or her in the same way that they have been treated” (Wright, 2007). For instance, if a child is taught “to be worthy of love, care, and respect”, then he or she is more susceptible to anticipate equal treatment from others whom they have formed relationships with including friends, teachers, or other adults (Wright, 2007). Additionally, children who have been subject to emotional abuse devise a threatened sense of security and develop a skewed sense-of-self (Wright, 2007). Victimized children have internalized that they are; “flawed, defective, shameful, and unlovable”; and that the adults responsible for their protection are; “untrustworthy, capable of abandonment, abusive, and will not care or meet their basic needs” (Wright, 2007). In effect, a child’s abilities to form healthy and satisfying relationships later in life will be altered (Wright, 2007). The above descriptions clarify that many of my experiences from teaching, are direct implications of emotional abuse in childhood. Students who act out and cause disruptions are gaining attention the only ways that they know how. I have often felt like there has been a sufficient need to “retrain” these students and undue the conditioning that
McCoy, M. L., & Keen, S. M., (2009). Child abuse and neglect. New York: Psychology Press.
Romero-Martinez A, Figueiredo B, Moya-Albiol L. Childhood history of abuse and child abuse potential: The role of parent's gender and timing of childhood abuse. Child Abuse & Neglect March 2014; 38(3).Print
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
Abuse of children has become a major social problem and a main cause of many people's suffering and personal problems. Neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse have an immediate and long-term effects on a child's development. The long-term effects of abuse and neglect of a child can be seen in psychiatric disorders, increased rates of substance abuse, and relationship difficulties. Child abuse and neglect is a huge problem. Parents who abuse are people who have been abused and neglected themselves as children(Long Term Consequences).
“Each year, Child Protective Services receives reports of child abuse and neglect involving six million children, and many go unreported” (New Directions). The article New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research, explores the need for research of the long-term affects of child abuse and neglect, not only on the victims, but also on their families, future relationships, and other people out in the community. Current research has brought to life the long-term developmental and biological challenges that abuse victims deal with long after an event occurs. A problem that current researchers face when striving to learn more about the long-term affects of child abuse is a lack of funds. Money drives a lot of things in this world, and research is one of those things. The current funds for this type of research has been spread very thin over numerous organizations that deal with child abuse. In this article, New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research, new ideas for spreading these funds have been talked about and plans have been devised.
It’s no secret that child abuse causes long-lasting effects, but can any of the effects turn out to be positive? According to research, the chance of there being positive impacts of childhood abuse is extremely small. The list of possible negative impacts of childhood abuse is a long one, and they can last a lifetime if not properly treated. Though it is very possible to recover from the negative impacts of childhood abuse, the chance of them turning positive is slim to none. Childhood abuse not only affects future relationships and self-esteem, but it can also cause basic day-to-day activities to become extremely difficult. The trauma that results from childhood abuse, whether it is physical, mental, or sexual, can only result in a negative
In this second paragraph I will be talking about what abuse does to the children. Some may say that one type of exploitation is worse than others when it comes to adolescents. I feel as if no abuse should occur. After years of mistreatment children may have low self-esteem, the feeling that they have no way out, and may even try to commit suicide. It is very impo...
If there is abuse in your surroundings during childhood it can form emotional troubles because it can include anything from verbal abuse and constant criticism to more subtle tactics, such as manipulation, intimidation, and failure to please someone. Emotional abuse can be patterns of failure of parenting on the caregiver to provide a supportive environment. Growing up in a toxic household that contains drugs, prostitution, fighting can mold a child into believing that they are not worthy enough to have people in their life to support and make them better. Now, emotional abuse is not only within a child’s household, this can happen anywhere. School is one place where children deal with emotional abuse in the sense of words. Being bullied and being called names everyday can have a toll on someone psychologically, where they start to believe that they are exactly the names that abuser is calling them. This can get looked over because some many think that it is just words and that they can not hurt you because there is not physical evidence, but these less severe forms of abuse can still cause emotional deprivation that still have a strong affect. This can make children anxious and insecure, who are slow to develop as adults and who may fail to develop a strong sense of self-esteem (Gibb,
Child maltreatment can affect any child, usually aged 0-18, and it occurs across socioeconomic, religious, ethnic or even educational backgrounds. Arguably, child abuse and neglect is a violation of basic human rights of a child resulting from social, familial, psychological and economic factors (Kiran, 2011). Familial factors include lack of support, poverty, single parenthood, and domestic violence among others, (McCoy and Keen, 2009). The common types of child maltreatment include physical abuse, emotional maltreatment, neglect, and sexual abuse among others. Abuse and neglect can lead to a variety of impacts on children and young people such as physical, behavioral as well as psychological consequences which will affect the development and growth of the child either positively or negatively based on the environment and agency. More so, emotional, cognitive and physical developmental impacts from child neglect in the early stages of childhood can be carried on into adulthood. Research findings reveal that the experience of maltreatment can cause major long-term consequences on all aspects of a child’s health, growth as well as intellectual development and mental wellbeing, and these effects can impair their functioning as adults. Commonly, the act of abuse/ or neglect toward a child affects the child’s physical, behavioral development and growth, which can be positive or negative, depending on the child’s environment and agency. Another way to understand how the act has affected the child is to look at the child for who they are, and interviewing and observing their behaviors of their everyday life.
We’ll start with child abuse victims and the affects and reasons of this abuse. There are four types of child abuse and I will list them in order from least to greatest, neglect, physical, sexual and emotional abuse. Neglect takes first with the NCVS having 54% reports of child neglect in 2007. Neglect is a very serious form of abuse it is the failure for a parent or guardian to provide for a child’s basic needs, including physical and educational needs. We grow and development drastically in the first twelve years of our life so when parental guidance and love is absent it affects a child’s developmental skills along with learning right from wrong. Many forms of neglect occur in larger households and with households with domestic violence. Many parents with multiple kids become too busy focusing on the older children they tend to forget the youngest one. So it’s common for a three year old to walk out of the front door and on to the street when no one is there to tell him or...
What distinguishes neglect from additional forms of maltreatment is its inherent omission of behaviour rather than a commission of behaviour, as in the case of physical or sexual abuses (Sagatun & Edwards, 1995; Zuravin, 1991). Over recent years, it has been increasingly recognized that child neglect has a more severe and adverse impact on children’s development than abuse (Hildyard and Wolfe 2002; Trickett and McBride-Chang 1995).
When a child has been physically abused, there are noticeable bruises, or other effects on the person. On the other hand, most people do not recognize or even know the effects of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse can deeply wound a child, and as the child grows, the scars will remain; the scars that people do not see that can cause a lifetime of suffering. These invisible scars can affect a person’s development as they struggle to accept themselves from childhood through adolescence to adulthood. Emotional abuse negatively impacts an individual’s self-esteem, which can in turn, cause depression and substance abuse later in adulthood.
The documentary film Child of Rage (1992) shows that people that are abused may have issues throughout their life and socialization problems during their early childhood. It tries to show us that the behavior of a person is directly related to their upbringing. People may develop social characters based on how they were treated in their childhood. The reason why I think this way is because the plot of the movie is developed from a real life story of a young child whose parents mistreated her. Consequently, the child adopted an antisocial behavior, high level of aggression towards people and low self-esteem (Larry, 1992).
With the chronic issue of child abuse still affecting children’s education today. It is a key importance that people must not give up on children who are victims of child abuse, but make it their personal goal to help them prosper. School is not just a place where children go in the morning, but a social learning environment that provides students with a lifelong tool of knowledge. As children grow older and into different developmental stages the demand for love, support, leadership, and positive role models are crucial. Abused children are missing these essential needs; this is why the famous saying “It takes a community to raise a child” still holds true today. The education of abuse children is not a lost cause and with proper treatment and teaching they will grow up to be just as successful if not more successful than any other non- maltreated child.