A Report of Child Abuse

A report of child abuse is made every ten seconds meaning there are more than 3 million child abuse reports every year. In one study, 80% of 21-year-olds who reported childhood abuse met the criteria for at least one psychological disorder. What is child abuse you might be asking? Child abuse is a physical maltreatment or sexual molestation of a child. You might not know it but there are many cases of child abuse around us some may include family members, friends, or even the celebrities we look up to.

One celebrity that may be known that abused as a child was Oprah Winfrey.

Realizing that one of the most impactful women in the United States has gone through child abuse brings out many controversies. She uses her show to be able to help others around the world to not feel left out. She also uses her show to be able to change many people's lives and to not let them feel like she did when she was going through her rough times. As parents start to develop and teach their kids some may have an alternative way of teaching. Child abuse is one of the ways that parents think is a good way of teaching or disciplining their children. There are different forms of child abuse and each one of them has a long-term effect on children.

There are 4 different forms of child abuse and they can be physically or mentally. Each one of them has their own criteria and how it will be considered that certain abuse. In an article written by, Experts in Safeguarding and Duty of Care, we get a clear understanding of the different types of abuse. They are also very good at describing certain actions that are going to be considered that certain abuse. Physical abuse may involve hitting, shaking, throwing, drowning, burning or scalding, poisoning, suffocating, or otherwise causing physical harm to a child or failing to protect a child from that harm. Physical harm may also be caused when a parent or carer fabricates the symptoms of or deliberately induces illness in a child (Child Abuse and Neglect). Physical abuse to parents might not seem like physical abuse because they might think that they are just disciplining their kids.

Most of the cases brought to the public eyes are physical abuse. Most of the victims also do not think that they are physically being handled a wrong way. One example of this type of abuse would be when you are hitting your kids with an object you know is going to leave a mark or you alone know that if you are hitting your kids to the extreme is leaving the marks. This can also notice when the child starts behaving differently. This can be noticed as if the kid is known to be loud and energetic and all of a sudden the kid is quiet, shy and even to the point to flinch at any movement around them. In the same article Child Abuse and Neglect , we go into a different type of abuse that affects the child a little more than any other of the rest of the abuses, Sexual abuse involves someone forcing or enticing a child to take part in sexual activities, not necessarily involving a high level of violence, whether or not the child is aware of what is happening. In fact, the majority of children who are sexually abused by a carer will have no visible signs at all, due to the attacker not wanting to leave evidence, amongst many other reasons in the grooming process (Child Abuse and Neglect).

This is explaining the detail that makes up the part of it is sexual abuse and how the involvement of the child is with the parents. One example of this would be that the sexual predator starts by touching the child and sooner or later makes the minor commit an act of sexual activity. Most likely the predator is forcing the child to commit this act but also the predator threatens the child to not speak to anyone about what is going on. The child gets used to it that it fits like a normal day in their life. Emotional abuse is the persistent emotional maltreatment of a child such as to cause severe adverse effects on the child's health and emotional development. It may involve conveying to children that they are worthless or unloved, inadequate, or valued only insofar as they meet the needs of another person (Child Abuse and Neglect). This is going into detail of what emotional abuse would be and giving some example of it. To further the example a child might come home from a math test and get a 86% but the parent negatively brings the child down by saying they are not smart enough that they should have gotten a 100%. To some extent, the parent compares the child to another kid and says that they would prefer them because they are better than them. This type of abuse is really hard to see because this affects the kids mentally they might change in behavior a bit but emotional they will be affected. Neglect is the persistent failure to meet a child's basic physical and/or psychological needs, likely to result in the serious impairment of the child's health or development.

The physical signs of neglect may include constant hunger, sometimes stealing food from other children constantly dirty or smelly', loss of weight, or being constantly underweight and inappropriate clothing for the conditions (Child Abuse and Neglect). This is not an abuse but can be acted upon a form of abuse. It involves the child being in a whole different environment than other children their age. Neglect can involve all of the abuses above and become neglect. An example of neglect would be that the parents have no interest in child schooling and health. The parents go to the point of leaving a kid looked in a room and never let them out. The child in the case is neglect because the child is not being fed, dressed and their health is not all that great. Another example would be of this girl named Genie Wiley she was kept away in a room with little to no food. She did not socialize with no one. This is a huge example of neglect because this child was not completely able to develop like the 13-year-old girl that she was.

After seeing all the abuses above they all have an effect on the child. Child abuse affects the development of a child who experiences it in their early childhood. It may not be obvious for parents and the parents may not be aware their kids are being damaged through the abuse that they are putting them through. It might not be seen that abuse can cause so much harm to the brain but at the end of every event a certain part of the brain is affected. In the article written by Wolfe, we are taught that the families that have gone through an abusive time are more likely to be affected in the long run. Wolfe explains that the child's development is important, To understand the development importance of child maltreatment, one only has to recognize how the parents' failure to provide nurturant, sensitive, available and supportive caregiving make any form of maltreatment particularly harmful to child development (Wolfe). To further explain this quote it is saying that all of the abuses have an effect on the children. Everything all together gets combined affects how their development is. It can be very harmful to the child and how they are going to be when they grow up.

For example, there are some cases where children are more sensitive towards different abuses but they also get used to it and they are mentally traumatized. In the article Child Abuse and Neglect explains to us how the different parts of the brain affected can be effective in a certain part of our identity,Recent brain research has established a foundation for many of the physical, cognitive, social, and emotional difficulties exhibited by children who experienced maltreatment in their early years (child abuse or neglect). To further explain this quote the brain scans show that the abuse has affected a part f the brain that makes the child have difficulties to even feel or connect to other people. In the article Brain and Cognitive Development, we show that maltreatment affects different ages a different way and possibly have a more negative effect to them, Maltreatment during infancy and early childhood has been shown to negatively affect early brain development and can have enduring repercussions into adolescence and adulthood (Brain/Cognitive Development). To further your understanding the parents are in the long run affecting the child.

The brain works in many ways and is affecting the child. An example of how child development is affected by early childhood would be them growing up and being an abusing parent to their children. Another example of this would be their child being violent to anyone around them because they grew up in a violent household. Provides information on decreased frontal lobe functioning and increased limbic system sensitivity and the impact on the left and right hemispheres of the brain in children experiencing maltreatment. The webpage also includes information on the impact of maltreatment on stress hormones, thyroid production, and gene expression (De Bellis, Zisk). As stated above the early childhood of abuse and neglect affects certain areas of the brain that sooner or later affect the action of the children. The brain is an important part of a person's body because it helps you be you. It controls and holds most of your speaking, learning and movement skills. As said above early childhood abuse affect stress hormones which can later affect the child's learning ability. Stress is more likely to come through school work and friends making the kid not being able to communicate without not bring themselves.

In most cases, parents do not know the effects that abuse can cause their kids. Some parents also think that it is used as a disciplinary action but they don't know the long-term effects of the children. Children develop a mental illness due to early childhood abuse. We can see the aftermath of childhood trauma on brain scans. Children who are abused, physically, emotionally, sexually or neglected, have different adult brains than their counterparts who were not abused. Current research suggests that those who were abused are left vulnerable to a lifetime of mental illness and psychological problems, perhaps due to these changes in brain structure (Scharff). In this quote it is explaining to us how people who are abused have a different state of mind than those who have not yet been through abuse. As stated above that some part of their brains are developed differently than others. But also that different parts of the brain are all differently affected through the process of the child's abuse. In some cases, most of the abuse that happens to the kids come in a way earlier stage than others and the smaller of age the more or less effect it can have to the child's brain. Now, in the largest study yet to use brain scans to show the effects of child abuse, researchers have found specific changes in key regions in and around the hippocampus in the brains of young adults who were maltreated or neglected in childhood.

These changes may leave victims more vulnerable to depression, addiction and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), the study suggests (Szalavitz) In the quote above it is explaining to us that doctors use a certain machine to see the minors brain and get the results of the parts of the brain that are being affected through the abuse. As to further explained the parts of the brains that are more effectively make the aftermath of the kids to most likely to have a mental health. Furthermore, the maltreatment of children caused PTSD to increase throughout their lifetime beginning with early childhood meaning that they would have to experience severe issues at a younger age than normal people. The study focused specifically on child abuse and neglect, so those who had suffered gang violence or car accidents were excluded from the study. Also excluded were heavy drug users and those taking psychiatric medications, because those drugs could have an impact on the brain and skew the results (Scharff). As mentioned, children aren't most affected by the drugs around them but rather because of the way they are treated by their parents. Drugs are the cause of leaving your child without attention and mistreating them.

Overall, about 25% of participants had suffered major depression at some point in their lives and 7% had been diagnosed with PTSD. But among the 16% of participants who had suffered three or more types of child maltreatment for example, physical abuse, neglect, and verbal abuse the situation was much worse. Most of the 53% had suffered depression and 40% had had full or partial PTSD (Scharff). To further explain the statistic above we can see that more likely a kid is going to be affected through any type of abuse he was put through. We can also see that even as adults they are still affected by their past, and that is always going to be a part of them and it will never leave their side. We can also see that most of them live their life with post-traumatic stress disorder meaning that they can be triggered by anything and their past can haunt them at that exact moment.

All of the abuses end up leading your kids to be traumatized. All the effects explained in the last paragraph end up leading your kids to be affected forever and they will need help to get over the trauma they went through. Early childhood abuse and neglect will lead to traumatizing the kids. Many of the kids in this stage become adults and never get over the fact that their parents treated them the way that they were treated. But in the same way kids mentally never get the event out of their mind and are effective long-term. In the article written by Abigail Zirk, The Biological Effects of Childhood Trauma, she explains the definition of trauma and some of the components that are related to trauma. "Trauma, by definition, is the result of exposure to an inescapably stressful event that overwhelms a person's coping mechanisms (De Bellis, Zirk)" She points out that an important aspect of an event (or pattern of events) is that it exceeds the victim's ability to cope and is therefore overwhelming.

A child should not have to cope with abuse, and when abuse occurs, a child is not equipped psychologically to process it. The adults in their lives are meant to be role models on how to regulate emotions and provide a safe environment (Scharff) As explained above the child is affected through all the abuses he was in. The child is not able to comprehend what is going on and the brain is not able to process the abuse happening. Many kids as they grow older and they are still traumatized can affect how they behave at work or even their own household with their own spouse. But at the end being traumatized affects you being able to get your feeling across or get any sense of them. Once a child has grown to be an adult, however, symptoms of PTSD can become more subtle as he or she learns how to cope with this in day-to-day life. The symptoms of PTSD can be quite general and can mimic other disorders: depression, anxiety, hypervigilance, problems with alcohol and drugs, sleep issues, and eating disorders are just a few (Babbel). to further explain the child can overcome their fears but they will always be affected by it.

Many of the long-term effects are based on what the brain is able to process and how much it can take. Anxiety is a big part of my every day of my life and living with it is the worse. I am still traumatized and going to therapy is helpful but can also still remind me of the reason behind it. People with PTSD often re-experience the trauma in their minds. When the memory brings on a physiological response or feeling this is called an abreaction. (The release of emotional tension through the recalling of a repressed traumatic event.) Often the situation that brings on the abreaction is reminiscent of the original trauma (NAASCA)To further explain this the minor is not able to get over what they happened to them. They are not all always over what happened to them and how their parents mistreated them. At a certain extent, the minor is always in the stage of being in the state of mind of reliving the moments that their parents put them through.

There are about 1,700 fatalities due to early childhood abuse or neglect and there are many mental illnesses that are a long-term effect to early childhood abuse. Some of the children are affected more than others when it comes to abuse. Parents think that they are not doing harm to the kids but at the end of the day, it affects the kids. Although many parents believe that physical abuse is a form of disciplining their children this is proven to cause more long-term effect illnesses in their children. This doesn't only affect them as a kid but it affects them in the long run when they are adults who are suffering from anxiety, depression, etc. This is caused by the PTSD they have gone through by every disciplinary hit received.

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