Long_Term_Effects_of_Child_Abuse

Thomas, a well rounded student in high school, worked hard every day to excel in all school subjects. One day Thomas came in with a bruise on his arm and told everyone that he had fallen while skateboarding. Over the next few days Thomas started showing up late to school and sometimes not even going at all. He came in with more bruises and even a broken arm. His grades started to slip and his attitude started changing. Thomas started making dramatic changes for the worse. Week after week Thomas made up lies to cover up his bruises and broken bones. Thomas was being abused by his father, each and every day the attacks got more severe. It had been about three months and Thomas stopped showing up for school. Everyone was worried about him then later they found out that Thomas was killed. His father had beaten him to death and sexually abused Thomas. It started out as a few meaningless comments that could only hurt a person’s feelings but progressed and ended in the death of Thomas. However, Thomas is not alone in the world of abuse, in the United States 4 children die every day as a result of child abuse. Three out of the four of these children are under the age of 4 (Child Abuse). There are four main types of child abuse; Sexual abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse and Child neglect. Each and every type of abuse has short and long term affects. Although every effect of child abuse is serious, some carry a higher level of seriousness then others. Child abuse is generational, meaning if your mom abused you then it was likely that her parents abused her and the chain could continue if nothing is done to prevent the abuse. Even if child abuse happens only a single time, it can leave an everlasting feeling that converges with social means, emotional aspects, and the way that child treats other people around them. Sexual child abuse is defined as any sexual act between an adult and a child. It has components of both physical and emotional abuse. Sexual abuse can be physical, such as inappropriate touching or actual sexual penetration; also, sexual abuse can be forcing a child to undress or exposing oneself to the child. The victim of sexual child abuse is usually abused by someone they know and trust such as their father or mother. Studies show that 75 to 80 percent of abuse cases involve someone known to the victim (Connelly 17). Penni Wallas, a licensed clinical social worker and a known clinical psychologist in the Charlotte area, states “A child feels as if what their parent is doing is normal because it is their parent and they have right to do it”. However, another 50% of children were abused by someone outside of their home whom they knew and trusted (Kraizer). A child is told that strangers are bad and that strangers hurt them, on the other hand, what they aren’t told is that a family member can harm them as well as a babysitter. This can lead to short term effects which can range from isolation from others to expressing aggression, torn clothing or even pregnancy. A child that refuses to undress for a required event because of the abuse they are experiencing is an example of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder also known as PTSD. According to PTSD the child has the desire to avoid people, places, situations, or activities that would remind the abused victim of the traumatic event (Connelly 40). If a child is forced to undress in front of his or her abuser they are more than likely to refuse to undress for a required event because this reminds the victim of the attacks. While the short term effects seem to be easily demolished, the long term effects harm the child to a greater extent. Abused children could experience long term depression which could eventually lead to suicide. Suicide is a serious effect of child abuse, but it is not the most common. As seen in Visual A, suicide is actually one of the least occurring effects shown. However, suicide should not be completely disregarded. Although it may be the least common it is still a severe outcome that is possible and any child is capable of committing. Some Victims of sexual child abuse feel as if they can’t trust anyone anymore because the one that they did trust abused them. Children are not only sexually abused by their parents but they are also abused by children that are older than them such as their babysitters. Jake and John, two children around the age of five and six at the time, were sexually abused by their babysitter. A few years later the children finally had enough courage to tell their parents what they had experienced years before. They revealed that the babysitter had touched them inappropriately many times. The parents attempted to find the babysitter but she had left town and could not be tracked. The two children however, were not mentally damaged and went on with their lives. Approximately 40% of children are abused by older or larger children whom they know (National). As a result of the abuse a child can go through life with low self esteem and a negative body image. Sexual abuse that is not treated may cause a child to develop serious long term psychological disorders such as post- traumatic stress disorder, dissociative identity disorder, mood disorders, antisocial personality disorders and anxiety disorders. Many times a child’s behavior will dramatically change and could become disobedient and act out in school. "When a child is sexually abused they feel as if the abuse is their own fault" (Wallas). Jake the older of the two children whom was inappropriately touched by the babysitter thought the abuse was his fault because he did nothing to prevent it from happening. Jake, however, managed to work through his problems very quickly and was not dramatically affected by the problem he had faced. Many times as a result of abuse a child can feel as if nothing else can go wrong. The sexually abused child runs away from home continuing life elsewhere, this type of abuse is one of the three main reasons that a child runs away from home. The Abused live life on the streets and solicit; statistics show that 95% of prostitutes were sexually abused as a child (Kraizer). Sexual abuse victims are 2.5 times more likely to develop alcohol abuse later in life. Along with alcohol abuse Sexually Abused Children are 25% more likely to experience teen pregnancy. Sexually abused children also tend to dissociate themselves from other people as a defense mechanism. Over time he or she will become seriously depressed over the loss of close personal connections. Either way, the child suffers emotional and psychological damage. Physical abuse is one of the more obvious types of abuse to detect. An "abused child", under the law, means a child less than 18 years of age whose parent or other person legally responsible for the child's care inflicts or allows to be inflicted upon the child physical injury by other than accidental means which causes or creates substantial risk of death or serious disfigurement, or impairment of physical health, or loss or impairment of the function of any bodily organ (Wilcher). When a child is physically abused they experience many short term affects. Even though the short term do not add up to what the long term will do to them it still causes them pain. In the extreme cases of physical abuse a child could experience death, almost 5 children die every day as a result of child abuse (National). Physically abused children will most likely experience bruises or fractures and breaks in the bones. The child once again could experience short term effects such as anger or hostility towards other people. During school a sign of physical abuse can be truancy or excessive bruising in shape of hands or belts. Hitting is not the only type of physical abuse, a child could experience branding from a parent. This could be done with cigarettes or even a larger more painful item such as a stoker. The long term effects of physical child abuse are very identical to the long term effects of sexual abuse. The shaking baby syndrome is a very common type of physical abuse to children. The Shaking baby syndrome is when a child under the age of one is shaken vigorously for a long period of time. This can permanently disable the child, cause mental disabilities such as memory loss, brain damage or even death. While some parents seem to think that shaking their baby can do no harm to them, the aggressive back and forth shaking can cause the child to break its neck resulting in death. If the child does survive the aggressive back and forth shaking then the baby can still grow up and experience any of the following conditions; blindness, loss of hearing, cerebral palsy, or even severe mental retardation. Babies are not the only children that experience physical abuse, even though they are the easiest targets because they can’t defend themselves. No group of children is less likely to be abused then another. "Boys and girls are equally abused as one another"(Wallas). The age group of children that are abused does vary. Younger children are more likely to experience abuse then older children. As a child grows older they can fight back making the child a harder target but a parent can still abuse them with a belt or even their own fist. The physical abuse causes a child to have low self esteem and depression even as an adult. About 80% of 21 year olds that were abused as children met criteria for at least one psychological disorder. (National) Emotional abuse could be the most harmful because it sticks with the child the longest. Emotional abuse is the hardest type of abuse to identify and stop this is because in order for the child protection service to take action there must be demonstrable evidence. Since Emotional abuse does not leave a child with visible bruising of malnutrition it is difficult to spot and hard for the child protection services to intervene. Emotional abuse is defined as maltreatment which results in the impairment of physiological growth and development. Emotional abuse can involve words, actions, and indifference. Short term effects of emotional abuse can be invisible to anyone and everyone who is not in close contact with the family. This is also a hard type of abuse to detect because there are no physical signs on the child. If a child is being abused emotionally they will display depression and lowered self esteem. They have the tendency to stop doing school work and start to develop a pattern of truancy. Emotional abuse is the hardest to identify and it is also least occurring type of abuse. According to NCPCA 62% involved neglect, 25% physical abuse, 7% sexual abuse, 3% emotional maltreatment and 4% other (Wilcher). The last type of child abuse is neglect. This is the most common type of child abuse. Out of approximately 899,000 children in the United States who were victims of abuse and neglect in 2005, 62.8 percent (564,765 children) suffered from neglect alone, including medical neglect (Child Abuse). Neglect can be anywhere from not buying your children clothes for the winter or not feeding them. The short term effects of neglect make it hard for the child to feel comfortable around people. A child might have old raggedy smelly clothes making them not want to be near people. Child neglect is most commonly due to the parent’s inability to care for the child. The parent might not have enough money to feed the child there for the children are malnourished. They could also look very dirty and not be wearing suitable clothing for the weather. A child that is neglected doesn’t get the attention they need in their home. In return, the neglected child may act out in class due to the conditions of their home. A child may act out in class just to receive the attention that they need and don’t get from their parents. The abused could attempt to be a class clown or they could not do their work in class. Neglected children also have a higher chance of becoming a delinquent. Children who experience child abuse & neglect are 59% more likely to be arrested as a juvenile (Child Abuse). Other short term effects could be hyperactivity. While hyperactivity may only start out as a short term effect it could develop into a long term effect. The long term effects due to child neglect can be the most severe for a child as they get older. They could develop psychiatric disorders or even memory difficulties due to malnourishment. A neglected child could have a lack of medical attention that they need when injured or sick causing the disease to never be treated and progress to a much more severe sickness. A study showed that 700 children who were in a foster home had a recurring physical or mental health problem that had never been treated (Child Abuse). A neglected child can also develop issues of trust as they grow older. Because a child isn’t taken care of by the people they trust and love causes them to not be able to rely on other people that they grow to love, this can cause neglected children to develop relationship problems with future relationships that they develop with a significant other. A child that is neglected has a better likely hood of being a substance abuser, along with drug abuse neglected children give in easy to violence as well. Over 60% of people in drug rehabilitation centers report being abused or neglected as a child. Another study showed that 30% of abused and neglected children were more likely to commit violent crime (National). As the child gets older they feel like since no one has cared for them then they shouldn’t care about themselves either. Victims of abuse tend to think that they are worthless and there is nothing that they could ever be good at. Neglect contributes more deaths than any other type of child abuse. Child neglect has different long term effects depending on which age range it occurs at. If a child is malnourished as a toddler then their brain will have a hard time developing and could have repercussions into their adolescent years. Adults who were neglected as children show a much higher rate for health problems than those children who were not neglected. A child that is neglected has a higher chance of developing medical problems such as asthma, allergies, bronchitis, high blood pressure and many more. Due to neglect some areas of a child’s brain fails to form resulting in impaired development or even severe mental retardation. The most atrocious long term effect of all abuses is the likely hood that the abused children will do the same thing to their child. “Long term Research shows that people who have been abused are people who tend to abuse their own children, the reason behind this is because the children that were abused haven’t had any other modeling” (Wallas). Without immediate help this can continue the horrifying chain of abusing. On the other hand, a treated child of abuse could go to greater extents to protect their children and can even become very careful with their own children. The counseled victim could learn from the mistakes of their own parent or abuser and become overprotective of their child. Even though child abuse could happen a single time it leaves an everlasting feeling on the child and the people around the child. Effects of child abuse go deeper than the bruises.