There are four primary types of child abuse:1.physical abuse
2.sexual abuse
3.emotional abuse
4.neglect
Whether an abuse is rooted in the perpetrator’s mental illness, substance abuse, or inability to cope, the psychological result for each abused child is often the same: deep emotional scars and a feeling of worthlessness.
Our group is focusing on children with physical and/or emotional abuse.
Physical Abuse
Physical child abuse is an adult’s physical act of aggression directed at a child that causes injury, even if the adult didn’t intend to injure the child.
Such acts of aggression includes:
- striking a child with the hand, fist, or foot or with an object;
- burning the child with a hot object;
- shaking, pushing, or throwing a child;
- pinching or biting the child;
- pulling a child by the hair;
- cutting off a child’s air.
Such acts of physical aggression account for between 15 and 20 percent of documented child abuse cases each year.
Many physically abusive parents and caregivers insist that their actions are simply forms of discipline, ways to make children learn to behave. But there’s a big difference between giving an unmanageable child a swat on the backside and twisting the child’s arm until it breaks.
Physically abusive parents have issues of anger, excessive need for control, or immaturity that make them unable or unwilling to see their level of aggression as inappropriate.
Sometimes the very youngest children, even babies not yet born, suffer physical abuse. Because many chemicals pass easily from a pregnant woman’s system to that of a fetus, a mother’s use of drugs or alcohol during pregnancy can cause serious neurological and physiological damage to the unborn child, such as the effects of fetal alcohol syndrome; mothers can also pass on drugs or alcohol in breast milk. A woman who drinks or uses drugs when she knows she’s pregnant can be charged with child abuse in many jurisdictions if her baby is born with problems because of the substance use.
Emotional Abuse
Emotional child abuse involves behavior that interferes with a child’s mental health or social development. Such abuse can range from verbal insults to acts of terror, and it’s almost always a factor in the other three categories of abuse. While emotional abuse by itself doesn’t involve the infliction of physical pain or inappropriate physical contact, it can have more long-lasting negative psychological effects than either physical abuse or sexual abuse.
Examples of emotional child abuse include:
- Verbal Abuse
- Corruption
- Withholding affection
- Extreme punishment
Causes of Child Abuse
Not all child abuse is deliberate or intended. Several factors in a person's life may combine to cause them to abuse a child:
- Stress
- Lack of nurturing qualities
- Immaturity
- Difficulty controlling anger
- Personal history of being abused
- Isolation from the family or community
- Physical or mental health problems, such as depression and anxiety
- Alcohol or drug abuse
- Personal problems
No one has been able to predict which of these factors will cause someone to abuse a child. A significant factor is that abuse tends to be intergenerational – those who were abused as children are more likely to repeat the act when they become parents or caretakers.In addition, many forms of child abuse arise from ignorance. Sometimes a cultural tradition leads to abuse. Such beliefs include:
Children are property.
Parents (especially fathers) have the right to control their children in any way they wish.
Children need to be toughened up to face the hardships of life.
Girls need to be genitally mutilated to assure virginity and later marriage.
Emotional Effects of Child Abuse
Just as all types of child abuse have an emotional component, all affect the emotions of the victims. These effects include:
- Low self-esteem
- Depression and anxiety
- Aggressive behavior/anger issues
- Relationship difficulties
- Alienation and withdrawal
- Personality disorders
- Clinginess, neediness
- Flashbacks and nightmares
Many adults who were abused as children find it difficult to trust other people, endure physical closeness, and establish intimate relationships.
Behavioral Effects of Child Abuse
Child abuse can play itself out not only in how its victims feel but in what they do years later. Children who suffer abuse have much greater chances of being arrested later as juveniles and as adults. Significant percentages of inmates in U.S. prisons were abused as children. One of every three abused or neglected children will grow up to become an abusive parent.
Other behavioral effects include
- Problems in school and work
- Prostitution
- Teen pregnancy
- Suicide attempts
- Criminal or antisocial behavior
- Alcohol and drug abuse
- Eating disorders
- Spousal abuse
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