Child Abuse | Teen Ink

Child Abuse

January 24, 2013
By aepets GOLD, Rochester, New York
aepets GOLD, Rochester, New York
13 articles 0 photos 6 comments

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Child Abuse
Child abuse is common all around. Numbers of child abuse reports are called in every day. People say that more than 2,000 kids die each year from child abuse. Child abuse is the mistreatment of children or toddlers by their family or friends. Kids who are at a younger age have the greatest risk of being abused.

Types of Child Abuse
As people know, there are four different types of child abuse. One type of child abuse is physical abuse. Physical abuse harms the child’s body in any physical way. For example, kicking, slapping, punching, burning, pulling hair, poisoning, hitting and scratching are some ways people physically abuse their child. The second type of child abuse is emotional abuse. Emotional abuse deals with the child’s self-esteem and how they feel about themselves. This abuse is anything that somebody says that hurts how the child feels and how it may lower their self-esteem. Then there is neglect. Neglect is when you don't take care for the child. It's when you don't give the child their basic needs or you just ignore them. For example the parent won’t give the child clothing, shelter, food or water. The last type of abuse is sexual abuse. Sexual abuse is one of the common most abuses that people do not call in to the cops. Sexual abuse is an action that harms a child though sex or anything related to it. Physical, mental, emotional, and sexual abuse can cause major problems in life for the child. People to not understand how awful child abuse is.

Child Abuse/Motives?
There are many reasons why parents abuse their kids. Sometimes it’s just anger or maybe it is stress from family or work, but there are some other motives of why parents abuse their kids.

One reason is that they have a child at a young age. Young adults or teenagers who had a child at a young age may not be ready for the great responsibility it takes to raise a young child. They do not know how to parent their own kid or they just can’t handle all the stress it brings on to their life. That means they can’t have as much fun as they use to, they have more work to do and they have to watch over somebody else. Teenagers or a young adult may not know the first thing about taking care of a child of their own (Havelin pg. 14).
Another reason is that the parent was abused as a child. Children who are being abuse many ask why their parents abuse them. Some parents abuse their kids because they were abused themselves when they were a child. The parent who was abused might have learned to be violent. Violence is a behavior that is learned from other people or there parent. Abusers, who were abused as a young child, have a higher risk of abusing their children themselves (Havelin pg. 15).

The parents could be poor. Children who come from a poor family have a higher risk of being abused. Families that are poor have lots of stress on them. They may stress about not getting by or not getting enough money for the family. Studies show that kids that live in a family that have an income less than or equal to 15 thousand a year are more likely to be physically abused by somebody, to be injured by being abuse , to be emotionally neglect by a parent , to be physically neglected , of being educationally neglected, which means they don’t go to school.

Alcohol and drugs can cause child abuse. Alcohol and drugs are some factors of child abuse. In this nation 14 million people have a drug or a drinking problem. People who drink hurt and neglect their loved ones. Alcohol makes you feel like you can do anything you want, anywhere and anytime. That’s why sometimes they acted out and abuse their kids and family members.

The parents could be mentally or physically ill. Physically and mentally illness can cause the parent to abuse their kid. Children who have a parent with an illness may forget about their children’s needs and just worry about their own problem. If the parent is ill they may not have the energy or the time to be a good parent to their children.

The parents don’t get along well with the child. Parents who abuse their children may not connect with them as easily as a parent who doesn't abuse their child. Researchers found that people who don't abuse their kids talk to them and don't yell at them. People who do abuse their children don't talk with them at all and when they do all they do is screaming and make the child feel down on them.
Families who isolate themselves from neighbors and friends have a higher risk being abused. Families who have problems like a social problem or they don't have a job, they deal with that by disconnecting themselves from other people. Kids who live with parents who isolate themselves are at risk of being abused.

Kids feel that their parents don't love them if they abusing them. Some parents love their kids so much. But they just can't show that.
Parents who weren't taught how to parent can get frustrated because they do not know what to do. Parents who don't understand child development or don't have preparation skills for parenting or they are must immature don’t know what to do. They don't know child behavior so they might get angry at the child for something they can't control. When the parents have expectations and they aren't met, the parents have lots of anger with the child.


Physical, Mental, and Social Problems of Child Abuse
One problem that comes out of child abuse as a long term affect is a mood disorder. Kids who were abused may have depression which is common for victims of child abuse. Some of these feelings are linked to low self-esteem which is mostly caused by emotional abuse, from a parent who has hurt them. Depression may have the person feel or think suicidal thoughts, a sense of worthlessness which would come from the low self-esteem or from the person who may have said they were worthless and they believed them. Also, they may have sleeping problems and guilt. Child abuse can cause lots of problems for the child when they get older.

Another problem is antisocial personality disorder, which starts in childhood and then leads into adulthood. People, who have this, may lack feelings for other people. They may not have an idea of their own worth or their position. Sometimes they don't know how to cope when they are bored. They cannot control their impulse and they may also complain a lot. Sometimes they will have mood swings all day.
Another problem is anxiety, or panic disorder. People who were abused may have feelings of terror or persistent worry. Panic disorder can sometimes be overwhelming anxiety that they cannot control. This disorder may have the person acted out for no reason if there is no noticeable trigger that could set them off. One common thing that comes out of this disorder is a panic attack, which may have the person have a higher heart rate or sweating or chest pains, sometimes they have trouble breathing.

When kids are physical abuse may things could come out of it. The child could get poor grades in school or they can give poor work performance in school. The child could run away from their home and be abused even more on the streets. The person could be in a relationship with another abusive person.

For emotional abuse the person could have a low self-esteem. They want to hurt themselves. The adult may feel helpless. They are faced with substance abused. Also they could have an eating disorder.

The affects for sexual abuse are that the child could have a low self-esteem. They may have suicidal thoughts or actions to kill themselves. They may have an eating disorder. Last they could sexual act out in a relationship. There are also long term effects that come out of child abuse. For example, the child who was abuse could be a teen parent. People might turn to drugs to help them keep calm. Last they could have mental health problems. Children who were abused or neglect are 25% more likely to have one of these problems in the future.
Child abuse could leave the child with poor mental and emotional health. People who were abused have an 80% higher risk of having an eating disorder or depression. Sometimes they want to kill themselves or they may always worry about something all the time. People who worked with kids who were abused found that kids are more likely to a panic disorder or a stress disorder than other kids who weren’t abused. Kids who were abuse suffer a lot of pain.

One long term affect is impaired brain development. Abuse may cause the brain not to grow proper. The brain fails to grow and develop. This may cause kids to not do well in school and that may lower their chances for going to college. The child may not learn the language fully. The brain can't heal from all the damage that it has. Child abuse causes the children’s brain to not work or grow maturely.

In conclusion, child abuse is a very serious thing. Children die from child abuse each day and if they don’t die from it, they may have problems in adulthood. Today there are laws for parents who abuse their child. They could go to jail or they could be separate from their kids for physical, mentally, and sexually abusing their kids. Kids today have rights that protect them from being in an abused home. Kids are still at risk of being abused but today there is punishment for abusing a child.


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