Child Physical and Emotional Abuse - Research Paper Example

? Child Physical and Emotional Abuse Child abuse is defined as unpleasant handling of children below the mature age of eighteen bya parent, guardians or custodian. Child cruelty is something that results to physical and emotional injury or related threats. Baby bodily injuries ranges from severe fractures, burns bruises and in extreme cases death. These injuries are caused by punching, kicking, throwing, hitting and punching. Sexual abuse includes indecent exposure, rape, fondling of genitals, penetration and early exposure to prostitution. Psychological child abuse entails a series of behaviors that entail impairing the emotional development of the child. The impaired emotional development leads to a decreased sense of self-worth. Some of the signs of impacts of emotional abuse of a child include rejection, withholding love or support, criticism and threats. It is difficult to assess emotional abuse in a child. Childhood abuse is the biggest reason why people hurt children. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the psychological impact of child physical and emotional abuse. Adults who suffered child abuse are likely to perpetuate the behavior. Most of the child molesters feel affection for children but are inclined to less patience. They also tend to them are irritated by petty child offenses. This makes them not easy to handle the child demands. As a result, this increases the probability of bodily and expressive violence to these children. Child physical and emotional abuse is said to be cause by a number of complex factors (Schnitzer et al, 2008). These factors are categorized into four major categories. These include social isolation, family structure, intergenerational transmission of violence and social stress. Research shows that child abuse occurs in all the income, social and ethnic groups. However, it is reported mostly among the poor families. Child abuse is associated with low levels of education. Reported cases indicate that most of the children brought up by drug abuses, alcoholic parents and extremely young mothers end up getting abused physically or emotionally (Penn et al, 2006). Studies show that over 90 percent of the abusing parents do not have criminal or psychotic personalities. Most of these guardians or parents are young, anti-social, unhappy parents who never planned for the pregnancies. Most of these young parents, who are mostly single, are angry and appear to have unrealistic expectations. The actual implication of baby neglect is deliberated upon in stipulations of psychological, bodily and communal impact. These categories are perceived to be inseparable (Scougall, 2008). Psychological abuse, which entails emotional difficulties and cognitive delays, can arise from physical impacts. At the same time, physical impacts can have a negative effect on the growth of the brain of the child. Psychological abuse can easily be manifested through high risk behavior. This can result to physical health challenges in the long term. Some of these problems include obesity and sexually transmitted diseases. The immediate results of physical abuse meted on children include severe or minor effects. The minor effects include cuts and bruises (Penn et al, 2006). The severe impacts or effects of physical abuse include hemorrhage and broken bones. Although the physical aspects of child abuse can be temporary, their effects can cause long-term pain (Scougall, 2008). Therefore, they should never be discounted. A telling example is shaking a baby. This is classified as a form of child abuse among infants. The effects can lead to seizures, concussion, and vomiting, respiratory distress and in extreme cases death. However, these are perceived to be the immediate effects of infant abuse (Penn et al, 2006). The long-term effects of infant abuse include paralysis or cerebral palsy, blindness, mental retardation and learning disabilities. Studies show that child abuse can cause vital brain parts to cease functioning appropriately. This results in emotional, bodily and cerebral retardation. There are instances of child abuse that results on chronic stress that leads to hyper arousal. This happens in certain areas of the brain. The result is hyperactivity, attention deficit, memory and difficulties, sleep disorders, anxiety and post traumatic stress disorder. The immediate effect of psychological abuse upon children includes inability to trust, fear and isolation (Schnitzer et al, 2008). This translates to difficulties in relationships, low-self esteem and depression. According to a study, children who have been placed in out-of-home care were found to exhibit lower in terms of cognitive and language development and capacity. Although these children were placed in this condition because of abuse, they had social difficulties and low capacity to achieve academically. Children who have suffered abuse from parental abuse fail to secure stable attachment with them. This leads to difficulties in while relating with both peers and other adults. Most of the children are likely to experience challenges relating to drug use, teenage pregnancies, mental health complication and delinquency. Physical and emotional child abuse increases the probability of violent criminal behavior and crime in crime. Most of the children who have been abused end up abusing alcohol and taking illicit drugs (Penn et al, 2006). Research indicates that a third of the parents who experienced childhood abuse and neglect will end up victimizing their own children (Schnitzer et al, 2008). According to nationwide organization on drug misuse, most of the participants of the program experienced child abuse. A research indicated that the most common form of youngster maltreatment is the psychological (McQueen & Sinason, 2008). Female children are further open to the elements of psychosomatic violence compared to their male counterparts. The development of programs and policies that are aimed at addressing child physical and psychological abuse are developed based on the extent on the understanding of the extent of abuse and the consequences of the child abuse upon the society. Child abuse is unique to each and every individual child (Rogers and Kimberley, 2004). The consequences of the abuse vary depending on the intensity of the abuse and the frequency. Some the factors that influence the effects of child abuse include child’s characteristics and the relationship with the perpetrator (Rogers and Kimberley, 2004). The access to the caregiver determines the intensity of the physical and emotional abuse and the longevity. Social workers serving in the child protection agencies must have an excellent understanding of the dynamics of child abuse (McQueen & Sinason, 2008). This is important in guiding their decisions with regard to the amount of risk children face in given environments. Mistreatment behaviors by parents can lead to cumulative harm with has harmful effects of the child’s developmental trajectory. Interventions There are cases where children fail to exhibit effects of physical and emotional abuse (Rogers and Kimberley, 2004). This is influenced by buffered characteristics like high self-esteem, a sense of hope, optimism and high cognitive ability. Psychologists have developed multiple approaches that can be used for treatment. These include behavior modification, play therapy and therapeutic conversations between patients and therapists. Psychological intervention is applied in case of child abuse (McQueen & Sinason, 2008). This may be similar to the interventions used by the psychiatrists. Psychologists may work with adults and children separately. The can also opt to work with the entire family unit or groups. The therapeutic interventions reduce the sense of isolation and enables patients to reexamine their experiences and feelings (Rogers and Kimberley, 2004). However, psychological intervention in cases of child abuse entails assisting the parent with protective skills to protect children during their vulnerable stages of development (McQueen & Sinason, 2008). Parents or guardians must be empowered with skills to manage children from early age to adolescence. This entails mastering the needs of the child and the capabilities. This is where the therapeutic process may propose a change of environment for the sake of safety of one, some or all the parties involved (Xiangming et al, 2012). In the above case, the therapeutic treatment entails keeping the child under foster care to avert further injuries (Shonkoff, 2003). It also entails giving a set of rules of the acceptable and the unacceptable behavior towards the child. One of the parents is clearly violent and legal action needs to be taken alter further bodily harm to the other members of the family. This should be simultaneously with changing the behavior of the parent in order to internalize the ideal parenting behavior. Case study: Jacinta was five weeks old when she presented at a local hospital. She had many unexplained injuries, including a torn frenulum (tissue that connects the tongue to the mouth), lacerated and infected gums, a fractured nose and upper jaw, and burns to the buttocks and thigh. The hospital staff did full skeletal x-ray and discovered a fractured forearm that was approximately two weeks old. Sally, Jacinta’s mother, explained that the burn to the buttocks occurred when her 17 year old niece gave Jacinta a bath and allowed her to roll over and come into contact with an electric heater. The thigh burn occurred when Peter, Jacinta’s father, accidentally spilled hot milk on Jacinta. Sally explained that the facial injuries occurred when sally was carrying Jacinta over her shoulder, tripped and fell over the family dog landing Jacinta on her face. Finally she stated that the fractured arm must have occurred when the hospital staff held Jacinta’s arm too tightly to collect blood. Sally herself presented with a large bruise on her cheek, but she denied violence by her husband toward either her or the child and stated that the bruise was actually a birthmark that had always been there. A child welfare team investigated Jacinta’s case and decided to place Jacinta in foster care. They informed Sally that court papers had been filed to make Jacinta a ward of the state. Sally then confessed that Peter abuses both Jacinta and Sally and that Jacinta’s facial injuries occurred when Peter punched her. In this case, the child has been placed under foster care. The foster parents need help so as to understand and nurture the child. Abused children have a slow development rate when it comes to trust to other adults. The children are fearful and withdrawn. The child needs the services of a psychologist in conjunction with psychological treatment (Xiangming et al, 2012). Foster parents must be helped with it comes to understanding the behavior of the child. While dealing with Jacinta, it is important to note that foster parents be prepared to overcome the feelings of frustrations at the slow progress of the child. Abused children may fail to respond adequately at the care of the foster parents. The most important intervention for Jacinta is the provision of a stable and nurturant home. At the same time, Jacinta is in need of psychological treatment. This may entail specialized interventions programs that are integrated with therapeutic processes. Working with Jacinta alone may not be sufficient. The family therapy intervention may be helpful. Sally must be given the capacity to create an optimal nurturing environment for the child. This is because for any child intervention to be sustainable, it must entail preparing a child to be a function of the environment within which she must adapt. The environment must have the capacity to facilitate healthy growth. The collaboration between clinician and caregiver leads to a therapeutic environment that can extend into home. Families experiencing domestic violence and child maltreatment need legal interventions and broad panoply of services. The legal interventions in this case must involve a diverse group of people. For the case of Peter, Sally and Jacinta, the intervention is delicate and complicated. Sally may hate the violence committed by Peter but desperately want him to stay in order to Jacinta to have a father. Family violence occurs in the context of complicated attachments and feeling for each other. In this case, the child protection services and the courts have a legal obligation to ensure the violent behavior is controlled. This involved monitoring the behavior of the perpetrator carefully. A safe custody needs to be crafted in the event Peter insists on visiting Jacinta. This shall demand a careful assessment of the history of violence. The courts must ensure sober and safe consideration when terminating the parental rights of a violent spouse. This is because constant violence can lead the family to further risk in the event that Peter is in his early twenties, then it means he is a young adult. Peter can be put in a therapeutic intervention but not at the expense of the family. As the offending parent, there is a need to ensure further visits do not leave Jacinta to dangers. There is a need for differential response from the child welfare system in conjunction with the juvenile courts. If the services of batterer intervention program indicate positive changes, they should move into fatherhood programs. Peter should reunite with the family upon completing the intervention program and showing positive changes. The child protection system (CPS) investigates reports of child maltreatment and supervises children who are in foster care. In this case, child protection services and community-based child welfare agencies must collaborate to ensure the safety of Jacinta. For Sally and Jacinta to gain safety, there must be accompanying infrastructure that supports a broad array of the available resources. Sally needs community support in order to secure her life and that of child. The child protection system is the most comprehensive intervention in this case. The intervention involved multiple players including legal agencies. The intervention is long-term and sustainable compared to others (Rickwood, 2007). The intervention involved establishing benchmarks to measure the success of the program (Shonkoff, 2003). Child protection system offers structured and time-limited guidance for improvement of the program. This entails therapeutic intervention for the batterer while guarantying justice. This intervention records information on domestic violence and the specific harm meted on the child (Rogers and Kimberley, 2004). This holds the perpetrator accountable for further harm and addresses the resultant safety concerns. The case records are constantly monitored to ensure the child maltreatment cases routinely (Rickwood, 2007). Under the service planning in the child welfare program, the safety of the adult victim, in this case Sally is dealt with effectively. This program ensures the perpetrator stops the abusive behavior through compliance with court orders and batterer intervention program. In future, the child protection agencies and juvenile courts will have to develop joint protocols to remove interagency policy to enhance family safety. The domestic violence programs must collaborate with the community groups and service providers. This may result in regular organizing of cross-training with groups and agencies that are committed to child welfare. Domestic violence organizations must be pro-active in addressing the needs of the battered women and their children. This entails the needs to be safe and secure to the vulnerable children and women. The collaboration of CPS and governmental bodies should be actively involved in providing leadership in matters relating to domestic violence, physical and emotional abuse of children. In line with this, these organizations must offer referral linkages for children and mothers who are prone to violent acts. The government should provide full-time advocates to the child-protection service providers. In the cases where the culprit is a young adult, measures must be put in place to ensure the violence is controlled. This must involve establishing the causes of the violent behavior by the man while still pursuing legal proceedings. References McQueen, D., & Sinason, V. (2008). Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy After Child Abuse: The Treatment of Adults and Children Who Have Experienced Sexual Abuse, Violence and Neglect in Childhood (1st ed.). Karnac Books. Penn, H., Burton, V., Lloyd, E., Mugford, M., Potter, S., and Sayeed, Z. (2006). Early Years: What is Known About the Long-term Economic Impact of Centre-based Early Childhood Interventions? London: EPPI-Centre, University of London. Rickwood, D. (2007). Conceptual Framework for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health in General Practice: Overview of the Literature. Monograph 1. Adelaide:Australian Network for Promotion, Prevention and Early Intervention for Mental Health. Rogers, P., Edgecombe, G., and Kimberley, S. (2004). Early Intervention - Particularly in Early Childhood: Dept Family and Community Services. Scougall, J. (2008). Lessons Learnt About Strengthening Indigenous Families and Communities.Canberra: Department Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs. Schnitzer, P. G., Covington, T. M., Wirtz, S. J., Verhoek-Oftedahl, W. P., & , W. P. (2008). Public Health Surveillance of Fatal Child Maltreatment: Analysis of 3 State Programs. American Journal of Public Health, 98(2), 296-303. Shonkoff, J.P. (2003). Still waiting for the right questions. American Journal of Preventive Medicine, 24(3, Supplement 1), 4-5. Xiangming, F., Derek , S. B., Florence, C. S., & Mercy, J. A. (2012). The economic burden of child maltreatment in the United States and implications for prevention. Child Abuse & Neglect, 36(2), 161-162. Read More