Essay on Child Abuse

Jorge Trevino jlt3546 43610
Fall 2013

Jorge Trevino
PSY 301
Pennebaker and Gosling
6 December 2013
Child Abuse One of the most highly debated, controversial, and talked about issues not just in the United States, but in the entire world is that of child abuse. Child abuse is described as “the behavior that causes significant harm to a child” (Stalker, 35). This harm that is done to the child can be sexual, physical, psychological, or emotional. Child abuse is also described as “the series of acts of omission by a parent or caregiver that results in harm, potential for harm, or threat of harm to a child” (Nikulina, 417). This harm can said to be performed in various settings in which the child interacts; most notable, of course, the child’s home, but others include organizations such as a day-care, school, or other prominent community places such as the church. Thorough research across the world show high rates of child abuse amongst great majority of the population. In the United States alone, it is estimated that a minimum of one million children are abused every single year (Nikulina, 417). Recently, much importance has been given to promote child abuse prevention, thus, plentiful quantities of research have been conducted that observe many of the aspects that deal with child abuse. Some of these topics include the psychological disabilities and effects that a child abuse victim experiences at a later point in life, the underlying causes from a child abuse case, and the issue of child abuse prevention programs. With child abuse becoming such a prevalent and heard about problem around the world, something must be done to stop this “pandemic” from going unnoticed. The first issue that I want to discuss concerning the issue of child abuse is the disabilities that become visible from a child abuse victim at a future point in their lives. A study done in the UK highlights the fact that there is reliable and concrete evidence “that there is a higher incidence of [child] abuse amongst [physically and psychologically] disabled patients” (Stalkher, 37). With such a wide variety of disabilities that have been detected in studies conducted on child abuse victims, it has been proven that there are “predictors of resiliency” of disabilities amongst child abuse victims that coincide with the severity and depth of the disability (Wilson, 2). With so many factors being taken into consideration, the most prevalent and common amongst child abuse victims include the “duration, frequency, and type of abuse… the child’s relationship with the perpetrator… and other factors such as the social support [that a child receives after becoming a victim of child abuse]” (Wilson, 2). These different, yet common amongst many child abuse victims, lead to psychological problems and disabilities in the futures of these victims. Such psychological problems include cognitive and academic deficiencies, poor executive functioning and nonverbal reasoning, and weak working memory, cognitive flexibility, sustained attention, nonverbal problem-solving, and relational reasoning (Nikulina, 418). More severe, and possibly life-threatening consequences, that are prominent in child abuse victims include the prevalence of suffering from anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Stalkher, 37). Other consequences that have been commonly noted amongst child abuse victims, and still possibly minimally related to psychological problems, include health risk behaviors, poor physical health, criminal behavior, academic underachievement, and lower IQ (Nikulina, 418). This is just a short list out of the thousands of consequences that have been found amongst a large population of child abuse victims. One small action of abuse or harm that a perpetrator has against a child creates a lifetime of psychological, physical, and emotional problems for the victim. Another aspect of the issues dealing with child abusing concerns the causes

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