Child Abuse and Neglect of Children With Disabilities - Assignment Example

Examples of child abuse are mental abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse, and neglect. This can be caused by stress, use of drugs, mental illness, family problems, psychological problem, unemployment, low socioeconomic status, caring for a child with a disability, among others.

As a result, the abused child may indicate or be presented with sexual and behavioral problems, emotional problems, and physical injuries (Iwaniec, 2006). Prematurely born and chronically ill children tend to be at high risk of being abused. This is because they place stress on their psychologically vulnerable parents, as they are difficult to manage especially if their parents are inexperienced. The children that can barely communicate, or those who are less mobile, or the ones showing significant cognitive impairments as a result of disability can be referred to as chronic stressors for the parents or the child care providers (Benedict et. al., 1992).

Parents with typically poor educational backgrounds or low achievements may physically abuse children because of high social stress and low socioeconomic status. A condition that arises from this situation is unemployment, poor housing, illness, large family size, and even the presence of a new baby in that family. Parents may thus harm their children physically especially if they have personality disorders and are depressed or are drug and alcohol abusers. These conditions present in the parents may subject their children to neglect and prolonged physical abuse (Benedict et. al., 1992).

Physically abused children have recorded numerous complications ranging from scars and skin markings, serious physical injuries, and mild neurologic signs than those who are not abused. Most of these children have burns common in the perineum and the dorsal aspect of the hand buttocks. Since the children have been physically neglected and sexually maltreated, they tend to show signs of genital manipulation and discriminating sexuality. This sexual abuse increases the risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases like HIV and syphilis.

Furthermore, children who are abused show higher levels of hopelessness, depression, lower self-esteem, fearfulness, insomnia, nightmares, and phobias. When these symptoms prolong, they may lead to mental health consequences such as suicidal attempts, eating disorders, and relationship complications (Kvam, 2000).