Emotional Child Abuse

Emotional Child Abuse

Introduction

I am interested in researching the topic of emotional child abuse since it is relevant to my field as an elementary school teacher. It is crucial I familiarize myself with all the aspects of the topic like signs and symptoms of abuse and effectively handle such situations in the future through counseling and other intervention measures. Emotional child abuse occurs when a child experiences psychological or verbal abuse that is characterized by hostility, bullying, criticism, constant rejection, and exposure to violence. The effects of emotional child abuse are as intense as other abuses, such as physical abuse. The paper will cover the possible signs of abuse, its impact, and support systems or intervention and prevention approaches and social change efforts. It will also analyze the different theories associated with child abuse and how they are integrated to provide quality data needed to guide approaches.

History? Background

The topic of emotional child abuse is crucial, especially for teachers. Teachers play a vital role in the prevention of abuse. In most instances, they may be the only ones who are informed of the abuse since one in every four girls and one in every twenty boys in the United States is emotionally abused. Based on such outcomes, there are a high likelihood teacher encounter cases of abuse in their profession. Children may be afraid to discuss the issue, and teachers can offer a safe and supportive environment for them to open up and report the problem.

Moreover, vulnerable children abused by the family may prefer reporting to teachers instead of parents or someone at home. It is of the essence for teachers to know how to handle the cases. For instance, they have to know what to say for the victims to feel safe and reassure them they did the right thing. Their responses make a considerable difference in regards to reducing fear, doubt, shame, and other negative feelings experienced during reporting.

There has been a growing concern on emotional child abuse globally, prompting the need for identification, documentation, and reporting of cases of child abuse. Most of the data is collected for bureaucratic and tracking purposes instead of research creating room for underreporting and underrepresentation. Nonetheless, a study by Moody, G., Cannings-John, R., Hood, K. et al. (2018) reviewed systematically the prevalence of child maltreatment using contemporary studies. The prevalence of emotional abuse rate was at 28.4 percent for girls and 13.7percent for boys in North America. Non-clinical samples showed that girls who were emotionally abused were a much lower rate of 15.9 percent, and boys reduced slightly at 12.3 percent. Although it is not easy to identify victims of emotional abuse since pain is in the inside, it is possible to observe the behaviors and personalities of children. One of the features exhibited by the children is extreme loyalty to parents, who are afraid to be punished or assume such abuse is normal. They can also show behavior indicators such as dramatic behavior changes, inappropriate behavior patterns for their ages, aggressiveness, destructive antisocial behaviors, loss of bowel control, lack of self-confidence, poor peer relationships, and a poor display of emotions. Some of these behaviors can be portrayed by normal children but can be a reliable indicator of abuse. There is a correlation between parents who were abused to their children’s abuse, especially if they were unable to manage their situation. However, the abuse cannot be attributed to a single factor, and it can be combined to create social or emotional pressures. In particular scenarios, the problems can contribute to family stress, including divorce, death, unemployment, isolation, poverty, health crises, alcohol, and substance abuse and mental issues.

Emotional child abuse affects children in the long term and may have serious consequences. Several researchers have linked psychopathological symptoms with emotional abuse, including patterns of long-term depression, low-self-esteem, anxiety, estrangement, and troubled relationships (Vaughan et al., .2013). As children, victims may be poorly adjusted both psychologically and emotionally, in their teen life they are not able to trust, resolve complicated feelings developed from childhood, and participate in interpersonal relationships and achieve happiness. When they become adults, they have challenges recognizing and accepting the feelings and needs of their children and end up being emotional abusers.

Theoretical perspective, context analysis, and limitations:

Emotional child abuse can be attributed to multiple causes, including mental illness of parents, experiences of violence, societal perception of violence, or environmental and social stresses. Therefore it is essential to have an adequate understanding of the etiology of the problem in order to apply the appropriate and effective interventions. Different theories and perspectives exist and try to explain the causal agents of abuse against children (Hughes & Cossar, 2015). The theories explaining child abuse can be classified into either unitary or interactive groups. Unitary theories include social learning, environmental, psychoanalytic, labeling, and cognitive development. Each of the unitary theories provides explanations of child abuse from a single point of view. Psychoanalysis has mostly been used or guided most of the research on this topic, with data showing that one in every ten parents has been linked with a psychiatric condition. Nevertheless, there are several personality types associated with emotional child abuse, and none can accurately predict the abuse.

The rest of the theories share equivalent limitations in terms of explaining the level of data needed to guide interventions. A theory on environmental factors may lack the intra-individual and inter-individual aspects that show weakness and strengths that create vulnerability to families to the environmental settings. Another theory, like labeling, may contribute to the explanations by highlighting pervasive predispositions relative to those who are identified and considered abusers, even though it may only happen in emergencies when addressing family needs. Researchers have recognized the value of these theories of etiology and are incorporating their effective components to other theories (Hughes & Cossar, 2015). Emotional child abuse may be explained on this theoretical framework as an indicator of dysfunctional system with various interacting variables. Experts concerned with this topic have conceptualized it as a phenomenon that require multiple approaches beginning with individual, family, society to attain a comprehensive intervention.

Conclusion

Emotional child abuse, which entails actions, words, and indifference, can lead to impaired psychological development, which may proceed to adulthood. When abused children reach adults, they are not well equipped to deal with interpersonal relations and live happily. This is because research has linked or demonstrated that there is a correlation between adults who were exposed to violence and other psychological abuse with emotional child abuse. However, there is no single explanation to the outcome; hence it is necessary for researchers to the integrated utility of several theories to explain the association and develop effective intervention strategies. Preventing and treatment of emotional child abuse requires shared concerns from different theories and perspectives. Inadequate explanations constrain current approaches from theories and knowledge. Therefore, researchers should accumulate and integrate different concepts derived from theories to improve the quality of data needed to guide interventions.

References

Hughes, M., & Cossar, J. (2015). The Relationship between Maternal Childhood Emotional Abuse/Neglect and Parenting Outcomes: A Systematic Review. Child Abuse Review, 25(1), 31–45. doi: 10.1002/car.2393

Moody, G., Cannings-John, R., Hood, K. et al. (2018). Establishing the international prevalence of self-reported child maltreatment: a systematic review by maltreatment type and gender. BMC Public Health, 18, 1164.

Vaughan, E. L., Feinn, R., Bernard, S., Brereton, M., & Kaufman, J. S. (2013). Relationships Between Child Emotional and Behavioral Symptoms and Caregiver Strain and Parenting Stress. Journal of Family Issues, 34(4), 534–556.