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Effects of childhood abuse to adulthood
Psychological consequences of child abuse
Extended essay on how child abuse can affect adulthood
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Child abuse is a major problem in society, and the emotional and physical abuse of children can lead to many problems in their life. One important problem that an individual may face due to child abuse is personality disorders. Personality disorders are an important topic of discussion when thinking about child abuse. According to psychological research, much of an individual’s personality comes from their parents or whoever has raised them. In this case many children will learn the negative behavior that they observed in their parents, and this can lead to negative traits in their personality. In this paper the discussion of how that observational learning of personality from a parent or guardian who has mistreated their child will be analyzed. There are many forms of child abuse, and this paper will examine the risk factors of child abuse, specifically sexual and emotional abuse, and how that relates to personality disorders when the child reaches adulthood.
Physical Abuse First physical abuse and the correlation of how it affects adulthood behavior will be discussed. In a study done by David P. Farrington he examines the effect
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A study discussed in Michael P. Hengartner’s article assesses the Big Five Personality Traits and its correlation to emotional and sexual abuse. The study found that individuals that have gone through any type of emotional neglect were likely to have a high percentage of neuroticism, low agreeableness, and are more likely to be introverted (Hengartner, M. 2015, p. 8). Next, the correlation of the Big Five Traits and sexual abuse were examined. The study found that neuroticism was related to sexual abuse, but it was not significantly influenced. Unlike emotional abuse, which had some relationship to all of the Big Five Traits, sexual abuse only affects an individual’s likelihood to be more neurotic, and none of the other traits were
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
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 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...
Vaughn, M, and Q. Fu, and K. Beaver, and M. DeLisi, and B. Perron, and M. Howard. (2011). Effects of Childhood Adversity. Journal of Interpersonal Viole, 26 (17), pp. 3509-3525.
Holt, S., Buckley, H., & Whelan, S. J. (2008). The impact of exposure to domestic violence on children and young people: A review of the literature. Child Abuse and Neglect, 32, 797-810.
The disorder consists of two or more recognizable identities which change personality and appearance. Though there are as many as one hundred separate personalities, there are five different generalized alters (Swartz, 2001). These consist of a depressed personality, a strong and angry protector, a scared and hurt child personality, a helping personality, and finally an internal persecutor personality. Each one of these derives from traumatic childhood memories and allows the victims to act now as they could not act in the time of the traumatic experience. The depressive personality causes one to repress the harmful memories and have mood swings similar to bipolar disorder. This is common as it expresses the sadness they felt at the time but could not show. The strong angry protector is a result of the victim not being able to protect themselves from the disturbing situations endured, it allows them to express their true anger they could not before. The scared, hurt child shows tendencies such as mistrust, anxiety attacks, and substance abuse. It is commonly the most emotionally agonizing as it provokes the authentic memories. It challenges the individual to return to the feelings they felt during the trauma. The helping personality acts as a therapist as it tries to work through the intense emotions in the given context. This personality tries to make sense of the past and present circumstances in order to bring an inner peace by providing answers as to why the trauma may have taken place. The last personality, the internal prosecutor, blames the other personalities for the history of abuse. This personality may only be obtained if the patient is aware they have other personalities. It is often named after the oppressor or offe...
Teisl, M., & Cicchetti, D. (2008). Physical abuse, cognitive and emotional processes, and aggressive/disruptive behavior problems. Social Development, 17, 1-23.
Children who are victims of abuse are likely to display aggressive and demanding behaviors. Being a victim of abuse may interfere with how the child may view themselves, their self-worth and their well-being. In attempts to explain why delinquent is a result of abuse the social learning theory is used. It is explained that delinquent and antisocial behaviors are
Child abuse is a serious issue in today's society. Many people have been victims of child abuse. There are three forms of child abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual. Many researchers believe that sexual abuse is the most detremental of the three. A middle-aged adult who is feeling depressed will probably not relate it back to his childhood, but maybe he should. The short-term effects of childhood sexual abuse have been proven valid, but now the question is, do the long-term effects of childhood sexual abuse affect middle-aged adults? Many contradicting views arise from the subject of childhood sexual abuse. Researchers and psychologists argue on this issue. Childhood sexual abuse has the potential to damage a child physically, emotionally, and behaviorally for the rest of his or her childhood, and the effects have been connected to lasting into middle-aged adulthood.
Experiencing emotional abuse as a child can lead to a decrease in self-esteem as an adolescent. Many parents do not know the difference between common angry outbursts and emotional abuse. The easiest way to define the two, would be that common anger usually concludes with the parent’s apologizing for their actions in more cases. Forms of emotional abuse include “belittling, exploiting, denying, rejecting, isolating, inconsistency, neglecting, and violence” (Kairys, Johnson, Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect, 2002); possibly interactions witnessed by many children. The key that makes them abusive is the repetit...
According to research done by Gokmen Arslan (2016), childhood “psychological maltreatment” may directly indicate depression, or low self-esteem in adulthood. Childhood abuse and general trauma are two major risk factors of depression in adolescent and adult years (Wingo et al. 2010). While the term “depression” often is used in a colloquial manner, it is not a disease to be dealt with casually. According to Wingo et al., sixteen percent of the population is affected by major depression alone. Additionally, it is one of the top ten causes for disability and untimely death in the United States. This number does not include dysthymia and other mental health issues which brings the percentage up to almost 19% (Reserved, 2016). Roy, Carli, & Sarchiapone (2011) even address studies that show a correlation between childhood trauma and suicide attempts in patients with psychiatric disorders. Furthermore, there is a strong correlation between experiencing childhood trauma and substance abuse, which can lead to additional social, emotional, and developmental problems (Calmes, 2012). These psychological challenges are not necessarily caused by childhood trauma; however, they are a result of the “dysfunctional” and “addictive” behaviors that many survivors engage in (Putnam, 2006). Childhood trauma can cause a disrupt in personality development which will in term harm the way that the child develops emotionally, physically, behaviorally, cognitively, morally, and relationally. Therefore, the child may have to work very hard to live a life free of negative consequences from his or her
... exposed to abusive environments show delays or restrictions in their physical growth as well as in their mental development (Smith, 1975).
Experiencing emotional abuse as a child can lead to a decrease in self-esteem as an adolescent. Many parents do not know the difference between angry outbursts and emotional abuse.... ... middle of paper ... ...
The effects of child abuse are multiple. The pain and trauma the abused child goes through is just a small part of how this cauldron of hidden depravity in our society affects all of us. Wrecked lives can be seen in persons of all ages and in all walks of life. Society as a whole is also effected by child abuse both in negative and positive ways. In this essay I will present some of the factor and results of this violent behavior on individuals as well as our culture.
Loos Mary. "Differential Effects Associated with Self-reported Histories of Abuse and Neglect in a College Sample." Journal of Interpersonal Violence 12 (1997): 340-60