Child Maltreatment

Child Maltreatment

• one of the worst most intrusive forms of stress

• impinges directly on child’s daily life, may be ongoing and unpredictable, and often involves people the child depends on and trusts

• children’s ability to respond to stress depends on the degree of support and assistance they receive from their parents, who serve as role models

• maltreated children may have a hard time adapting appropriately to stress

Four Types of Child Maltreatment

1. Neglect

2. Physical Abuse

3. Sexual Abuse

4. Emotional Abuse

History

• always existed historically, but was not seen as a problem till recently

• Until about 1900, children were viewed as the property of their fathers who had an unchallenged right to punish them

• Animals had greater protection then

• Has wide-ranging effect on physical and emotional development

Context

• Maltreatment often occurs within ongoing relationships that are supposed to be protective, supportive, and nurturing

• Intensity of the violence tends to increase over time, but in some cases physical violence may decrease or even stop

• Abused/neglected children face dilemmas:

  • the victim wants to stop the violence but also longs to belong to the family in which they are being abused

  • affection and attention from abuser may coexist with violence and abuse

• Societies struggle to balance parental rights with children’s right to be safe and free from harm - at what point do you take a child away from a parent?

• Maltreatment harms children physically, in developing relationships with others, and in their fundamental sense of safety and self-esteem

Article 19

most of the world now considers the rights of children, and world is becoming a much safer place for children legally

United Nations: States Parties shall take all appropriate legislative, administrative, social and educational measures to protect the child from all forms of physical or mental violence, injury or abuse, neglect or negligent treatment, maltreatment or exploitation, including sexual abuse, while in the care of parent(s), legal guardian(s) or any other person who has the care of the child.

Characteristics of Healthy Families

Parenting is challenging, you need:

• knowledge of child development and expectations

• adequate coping skills

• normal parent-child attachment and communication - when child and parent are separated, child is not super anxious or indifferent about separation

• Home management skills - home that is fit for children

• provision of social and health services

MOST FAMILIES SUCCEED WITH THIS, but not all…

What is the most common type of maltreatment among children who experience it?

Neglect!

Neglect

when you are supposed to be doing something and you’re not doing it

Three Types:

• Physical - not attending to basic physical needs like food, shelter, health care, or inadequate supervision

• Educational - not enforcing engagement in appropriate educational activity (school)

• Emotional - not investing in development of proper healthy values, emotional stability

  • not protecting child from witnessing things like, domestic violence, drugs, pornography, marital discord

Physical Abuse

Involves multiple acts of aggression

• hitting, punching, beating, kicking, biting, burning, shaking…

In most cases, the injuries are not intentional, but the result of overly severe discipline or punishment

Time-Outs

best way to keeping parent from abusing child when they are very frustrated with the child

• getting kid to sit quietly away from parent

• time out from reinforcement (not punishment)

• making sure the child is not reinforced (not talking to them) for short period of time

Sexual Abuse

• Fondling, intercourse, incest, sodomy, exhibitionism, commercial exploitation (prostitution, pornography)

• “Conspiracy of silence” - often no one will admit or talk about it

• About one third of sexually abused children neither report nor exhibit visible symptoms

• Many children recover significantly over 12-18 months following abuse

Emotional Abuse

when parent is mean, doing things trying to emotionally manipulate child, setting up an expectation without fufilment

• Repeated acts or omissions by caregivers that have caused serious behavioral, cognitive, or emotional problems

• Threats, put-downs, shaming, extreme forms of punishment and cruelty (ex. sit in your room all weekend)

Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs)

(trauma) can include violence, abuse, and growing up in a family with mental health or substance use problems

• Toxic stress from ACEs can change brain development and affect how the body responds to stress

• linked to chronic health problems, mental illness, and substance misuse in adulthood

• Associated with increased risk for health problems across the lifespan - more ACEs you have, more mental and physical health problems likely later in life

• Females and several racial/ethnic minority groups were at greater risk for experiencing 4 or more ACEs

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

Traumatic event: threatened death or serious harm to self or other

• Response involved intense fear or horror

• Persistently re-experienced (nightmares, flashbacks, intrusive thoughts)

• Persistent avoidance (behavioral avoidance, numbing, poor recall, detachment)

• Persistent increased arousal (poor sleep, anger, heightened startle, hypervigilance)

A fraction of the kids who experience maltreatment go on to develop PTSD, most kids do not.