EFFECTS OF CHILD ABUSE

Studies indicate children are exposed to serious abuse and neglect leading to physical and psychological injury and serious long-term consequences everyday. Researchers are still examining the wide range of potential consequences of child abuse and neglect. Evidence suggests that abuse is associated with problems manifested in adolescence and adulthood. Child abuse is a long-term crisis in a child’s life. Even though children are removed from violent homes, the effects of experiencing abuse in their childhood will hunt them through their entire life. Child abuse will affect every aspects of a child’s life and can affect their adult life as well.

Children acquire respect and protection from adults who take them seriously, love and help them to become a healthy, happy adult. Most children received the proper treatment and grew up with love and care, but the children who were abused, neglected and used by adults weren’t as lucky.

Oftentimes, children who are younger, preschool and kindergarten, do not know that they were abused, they tend to believe that what they done must have been wrong. They would become self-blame and precipitate feelings of guilt, anxiety and worry. Therefore, they would not and could not express their feelings verbally hence becoming more withdrawn, non-verbal and would whine and tend to cling. Problems such as eating and sleeping difficulties, concentration problems, generalized anxieties and physical complaints such as headaches would occur occasionally too.

To pre-adolescent child, they have a better ability to externalize negative emotions and are more verbalize. Symptoms commonly seen with childhood anxiety such as sleeping problems, eating disturbance and nightmares, pre-adolescent victims may show loss of interest in social activities, they have low self-concept and are often withdrawal or avoidance of peer relations. Some are rebelliousness and have oppositional-defiant behaviors in the school setting. Temper tantrums are also common, along with irritability, frequent fighting at school or between siblings, treating pets cruelly, lashing out at objects, or abusively, threatening of peers or siblings with violence and they would attempt to gain attention through abuse, for instance, hitting, kicking, or choking peers and/or family members.

PSYCOLOGICAL EFFECTS

A child’s mind may permanently alter the psychological well being of an abused child. Following maltreatment, children are known to display:

· Repetitive nightmares.

· Anxiety.

· High levels of anger issues and aggression.

· Feelings of guilt and shame, but for sexually abused victims, this can be quite severe if the victim experienced some degree of pleasure during the abuse.

· Sudden phobias, such as fear of darkness or water.

· Psychosomatic complaints, including stomachaches, headaches, hypochondriasis, bed wetting, faecal soiling, and excessive blinking.

· General fearfulness

· Specific fear of others of the same gender as the abuser.

· Depression, social withdrawal and long bouts of sadness.

· Self-reported social isolation

· Feelings of stigmatization.

After continued exposure to maltreatment, the abused child may develop further psychological complications:

· An increase of psychiatric disorders.

· Dissociation, intrusive thoughts, suicidal ideation

· More acute phobias.

· More serious levels of anxiety, fear, depression, loneliness, anger, hostility and guilt.

· Distorted cognition, such as chronic perceptions of danger and confusion.

· Illogical thinking, inaccurate images of the world and shattered assumptions about the world.

· Difficulty in determining what is real.

· Decreased effectiveness in comprehending complex roles.

PHYSICAL EFFECTS
While physical injuries, such as bruises, scars, and broken bones, may be visually obvious, abuse is also related to several additional mental complications. This includes:
• Children that suffered serious and chronic neglect are likely smaller and lighter than normal children, it has been shown to affect the child’s long-term health.
• Children that are physically abused may suffer permanent neurological damage; it may affect their future development.
• Eating disorders.
• Sleep disturbances and dizziness when awake.
• Gastrointestinal problems, migraine headaches, difficulty breathing, hypertension, aches, pains and rashes which may defy diagnosis and/or treatment.
• Poor health.

BEHAVIORAL CONSEQUENCES

Abused children are known to display:
• Developmental delays.
• Clinging behavior, extreme shyness and fear of strangers.
• Troubled socialization with peers – it may lead to constant fighting or socially undesirable behaviors, such as bullying, teasing or not sharing.
• Bad school adjustment and disruptive classroom behavior.

A victim of child abuse is more likely to be associated with a host of behavioral problems that will affect themselves during their adolescence period.

• Teen pregnancy.
• Self-destructive behaviors such as self-mutilation or burning.
• Truancy and running away behavior.
• Delinquency and prostitution.
• Use of drugs/alcohol and substance abuse/dependence.
• Eating disorders like anorexia, bulimia or obesity – most likely on female victims.
• Suicide or suicide attempts.

Evidence suggests that many of these problems may continue into the child’s adulthood and become ingrained patterns of behavior. It is believed that these children and youth develop such behaviors to cope with the trauma of being abused and neglected. These behaviors eventually become self-destructive and are usually extremely difficult to erase.

EFFECT ON ACADEMIC PERFORMANCE

A child’s school performance may be effected when the child is a victim of abuse as it is one of the most destructive consequences. Research indicates that abused children’s intellectual function and performance in school are reduced. It may also lead to long-term consequences. Victims with academic failure have been associated with antisocial behavior and therefore, quitting school. These behaviors in turn would increase the risk of decreased productivity to the victim, long-term economic dependence and less satisfaction with life as adults.

Victims may display:
• Lower schools performance test scores and lower language, reading and math scores.
• Grade repetitions, disciplinary referrals and multiple suspensions.
• Below average working and learning levels.
• Weaker orientation to future educational goals and vocational compared to normal children.

It is rational that child abused victims will perform poorly in school because not only do they have to face the complications of a violent home life, but neglectful and abusive parents are less likely to provide an intellectually stimulating environment for the child or read to the child, supervise the child’s school works and are less likely to get involved in their child’s academic life.

EFFECT ON SEXUALITY

Generally, abuse may affect a child’s concept of sexuality. It will cause the child to reduce his/her ability to set an appropriate boundary and often instills a fear or negative perception of sex. Even though the majority of sexual consequences are the result of sexual abuse, some forms of maltreatment can also be sexually destructive. For instance, a neglected child may seek sexual intimacy very early in life to cope with the neglect of his/her parents. This creates risk for teenage pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases to the child. Major sexual consequences of maltreatment such as:
• Engaging in open or excessive masturbation, sexual curiosity and frequent exposure of the genitals.
• Simulated sexual acts with siblings and friends, inappropriate sexual behavior, such as breast or genitals.
• Premature sexual knowledge of sexualized kissing in friendships and with parents.

Following in adolescence years and adulthood, the victims will continue to display sexually maladaptive behavior:
• Orgasmic disorders and painful intercourse.
• Promiscuity.
• Dissatisfaction with sex and negative attitudes.
These problems are usually the result of sexual component from a parent-child relationship, which affected the child’s sense of sexuality and intimacy. A of sexual abuse can have difficulty in distinguishing a sexual and a non-sexual relationship and therefore introduce a sexual element into all relationships.

INTERPERSONAL CONSEQUENCES

Child abuse can interfere a person’s ability to develop appropriate and meaningful relationships from childhood to adulthood. Victims are consistently being rated by their peers as displaying socially undesirable behaviors. Children displaying multiple psychological and behavioral problems would often have difficulty in developing and maintaining healthy relationships. Victimization reduces social competence and limits empathic ability that is necessary to establish a satisfying relationship with others. Maltreated children have been known to display the following interpersonal problems:
• Insecure relationships with parents and caregivers.
• Loss of close friends.
• No trust in others.
• Relationship problems, such as overly sexual or conflicted relationships.
• Dissatisfaction with adult relationships and fear of intimacy.

EFFECTS ON SELF PERCEPTION

Parental abuse, without a doubt, affects the child’s confidence and self-esteem. Parents maltreating their child will most likely lead the child to develop the sense of unworthiness. Maltreatment may cause a child to distort or have negative self-images throughout his/her life. Maltreated victims will view themselves as bad, worthless or unlovable and may develop problems such as:
• Low self-esteem.
• Feelings of being out of control.
• Inaccurate body images that will lead to eating disorders.
• Extreme sense of guilt for the abuse.
• Impairment of a cohesive sense of identity.
• Self-disgust, self-denigration, self-hatred.

SPIRITUAL CONSEQUENCES

Often child abused victims report having lost their sense of faith, not only religious belief but also faith in themselves and everyone around them. It is common for victims to display lack of spirit and faith. Moreover, when a victim reaches adulthood, they would show lack of interest and participation in organized religion. Any forms of abuse or neglect would destroy a child’s spirit or enthusiasm for the rest of his/her life.

SUBSEQUENT VIOLENCE

Victims of child abuse would often become violent themselves toward their own children and in intimate relationships. Studies shown that one third of all victims grow up to continue the same pattern that they were treated: one third do not; and one-third remain vulnerable to the effects of child abuse depending upon the social stressors in their life.