Childhood Emotional Abuse Essay

Child abuse in America is an ongoing problem and something needs to be done. There are approximately one million children abused annually in the United States. (Table 339) Cases of child abuse and neglect are reported every ten seconds, and researchers believe that there’s three times that amount that goes unnoticed. (Child Abuse: Know the Signs and Stop the Violence Against Children.) Something needs to be done for these children who are too weak and too powerless to help themselves.

Emotional abuse may include screaming, yelling, biting, name-calling, lack of love/affection, and so on. Children may be emotionally scarred when the y are labeled as stupid, ugly, crazy, or unwanted. Emotional abuse includes acts of omission by the child’s primary caregivers that could cause behavioral, emotional, or mental disorders. In some cases of emotional abuse the child’s caregiver may use excessive and bizarre forms of punishment like torture, or locking a child in a dark closet. These things emphasize the need for the intervention of The Child Protective Services.

No one ever considers who may have had an abusive past. Take for instants Kane Blacque, a successful and happy man from Edmonton, Canada. He is a loving husband with a wonderful job and a new puppy. However, few people realize that he suffered from child abuse from his own mother and multiple foster homes. Blacque’s mother mistreated her children so poorly that she had killed his baby sister. From that point on Blacque and his brother bounced from one foster home to the next. Blacque claims that he was abused emotionally, sexually, and physically at the various foster homes he lived in. He eventually ages out of the system, but that did not bring happy times. Blacque found his way into drugs, alcohol, prostitution, and he even tried to commit suicide multiple times. It took Blacque many years to find actual purpose in his life, but when he did he understood that the past made him into the person he is today. Blacque only brought up the painful memories of being abused as a child to Global News after a four-year old girl was abused to death in the care of a foster family. Blacque himself states that “social workers had noticed bruises on my arms, or burns-but nothing was ever done.” Blacque’s point is that the system he was in thirty-seven years ago, is still turning a blind eye to the abuse that is happening in foster homes. Very few people can make the slow recovery from abuse like Blacque could, however, many end up like the unfortunate four-year old. In

Emotional abuse is one of the most common forms of child abuse. When it comes to children emotional abuse includes encouraging children to develop self-destructive behavior, behavior that is threatening or likely to place the child or the child’s loved ones in danger, excessive, aggressive or unreasonable demands in which place expectations on a child that a child cannot meet, and ignoring a child’s attempt to interact. Emotional abuse in a child also includes the failure to provide the proper nurturing necessary for a child’s psychological growth and development. Terrorizing is the most common form of emotional abuse recognized in the case files, with nearly 81.1 percent of emotionally abuse children suffering from it. 63 percent of the emotionally abused children have experienced physical abuse and

There are significant signs of psychological trauma due to any kind of abuse. Children experience feelings of low self esteem and depression. Many exhibit behavioral problems including aggression towards other children. Other emotional problems include hostility, fear, humiliation and the inability to express feelings. The social impacts of physical abuse include inability to form relationships, poor social skills, poor cognitive language skills, distrust of others, over-compliance with authority figures, and tendency to solve interpersonal problems with aggression. (2008, p. 1). Verbal and physical abuse has a cumulative impact on children’s socialization. Abused children are caught in damaged relationships and are not socialized in positive, supportive way (Craig & Dunn, Ex.: 2010, p. 196). They learn defiance, manipulation and other problem behaviors that are used to escape any maltreatment. In turn they will learn to exploit, degrade and terrorize.

Victimization comes in many different forms such as assault, child physical/sexual abuse, stalking, theft, rape, sexual harassment, and domestic/relationship violence. There are several negative outcomes that have been linked with childhood abuse and neglect such as neurobiological changes, emotional and psychiatric disorders, interpersonal issues and substance abuse problems (Min, Singer, Minnes, Kim, & Short, 2012). According to Reid and Sullivan (2009), children and adolescents are very vulnerable and are the most highly victimized individuals of the population and the kinds of victimization that they experience can come in many forms (Finkelhor et al., 2009). This victimization is known as poly-victimization (Finkelhor et al., 2009).

There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,

Each year in the USA there are approximately one million reports of child maltreatment, about 25% relate to physical abuse and about 1000 children die of maltreatment each year (US Department of Health and Human Services 1999). During the past few decades, researchers have aimed at detecting the children, who are at high risk of becoming victims of abuse, so that appropriate interventions can be undertaken. The risk factors that have been emphasized include characteristics of the child, family, and social environment, and the relationship.

Child maltreatment is a widespread issue that affects thousands of children every year. There are four common types of child maltreatment; sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse and neglect. All of these types of abuse are very serious and can have many consequences for the children and families. The most common consequence of severe child maltreatment is the removal of that child from their home (Benbenishty, Segev, Surkis, and Elias, 2002). Most social workers trying to determine the likelihood of removal evaluate the type and severity of abuse, as well as the child’s relationship with their parents (Benbenishty et al., 2002). When children are removed from their homes there are many options of alternative housing. The

You’re Ugly! Stupid! Can you do anything right? I wished you were never born! Does any of these words sound familiar or bring back memories. If they do then you are not alone, there are many people on a daily basis who suffer from verbal-emotional abuse. In today’s society too many of our children live in homes where they face verbal-emotional abuse on a regular basis. In this paper we will discuss what verbal emotional abuse is, why so many children face verbal-emotional abuse and how to tell what the signs of verbal emotional abuse are in order to assist a child in need.

Emotional abuse, also called psychological abuse, is not as easy to recognize as physical abuse. It is defined as a care giver’s constant negative actions, thoughts, and words toward a child and how that child is impacted emotionally. There are almost endless possible ways emotional abuse can occur, but a few examples include “put downs” (David experienced this over the entire course of his mother abusing him. Emotional abuse is actually what his mother started abusing him with. She would call him names and tell him he was being a bad boy (Pelzer 1995)), berating, manipulation, and intimidation. It can occur with just one child or multiple. It can happen in a group setting or it can happen alone. Since there are no physical marks left on a child, most people would not suspect anything was wrong. Psychologically abused children can be disruptive, display maladaptive behaviors, have sleep disturbances, and may shy away from or be frightened by their parent or guardian, or whomever the abuser may be. These signs do not always mean emotional abuse, though. This may just be the child’s temperament. This is why it is important for those closest to the child to know his or her normal behavior and the signs of abuse (Thurston 2006).

There are varying definitions among advocacy groups, clinicians, and lawmakers. It is especially not easy to prove actual, measureable harm to the child due to the emotional nature of the abuse (Hamarman, Pope, & Czaja, 2002). Smith Slep, Heyman, and Snarr (2011) outlined the difficulty in defining emotional abuse, and also took into reflection cultural factors. Internationally, verbal punishment is used 70-85% of the time (e.g. yelling). The question is then asked, is this emotional abuse or is it piece of a family or group culture? After examining research and other definitions of emotional abuse, their findings and definition support Sneddon’s (2003) definition of emotional abuse, outlining parental behaviors such as, degrading, humiliating, threatening, berating, abandoning, or coercing the child, and using extreme discipline. Although there are many opinions and definitions surrounding emotional abuse, there is agreement on the devastating effects caused by these behaviors towards

Child sexual abuse has been reported up to 80,000 times a year, but the number of unreported instances is far greater, because the children are afraid to tell anyone what has happened (American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry). Childhood sexual abuse is a traumatic experience affecting the lives of not only the victim, but those close to the victim as well. Many think there is only one person truly traumatized, but in fact, everyone involved is affected. The victim has to deal with their experience the rest of their lives. They may be more at risk for other mental issues as well, including depression. The family involved has to deal with its pain, often causing hardship and discord within the family. This is especially true

Child abuse is a term impacted by copious multidimensional and interactive factors that relate to its origins and effects upon a child's developing capacities and which may act as a catalyst to broader, longer-term implications for adulthood. Such maltreatment may be of a sexual, physical, emotional or neglectful nature, each form holding a proportion of shared and abuse-specific psychological considerations (Mash & Wolfe, 2005). Certainly in terms of the effects / impairments of abuse, developmental factors have been identified across all classifications of child abuse, leading to a comparably greater risk of emotional / mental health problems in adult life within the general population

In today’s society, child abuse is widespread and has an affect on everyone who comes across it. The act of child abuse happens everyday to a variety of kids who are typically younger and scared to tell anyone. All children are born with the right to be able to develop, grow, live and love according to their needs and feelings. For a child 's development they need protection and reassurance from adults who love them and help them acquire the skills to be a successful adult. However, some children are neglected and hurt by adults that they trust. The abuse a child receives makes them feel bad about themselves, and it is much worse when it occurs within a family because it makes them feel unloved and alone causing them to have problems. “Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged. Numerous studies have investigated the psychological sequelae of childhood trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), dissociation, personality disorder, and substance abuse ”(“New Retrospective Measure of Child Abuse and Neglect” by David P. Bernstein). The act of child abuse causes kids to have one or more mental problems. Additionally, since people do not recognize the abuse while it is occurring, it causes these problems to