CHILD ABUSE: CAUSES AND EFFECTS

Child abuse is known to be one of the major problems which drive an attention of the nation. Child abuse can be defined as physical and psychological maltreatment and also sexual molestation of a child. According to statistical data from Welfare Department's statistic on 2018, 14 child abuse cases occur a day and many more go unreported.

In this essay paper of child abuse causes and effects, I will examine types of child abuse and consequences of child abuse.

Child abuse can be subdivided into four forms; neglect, physical abuse, psychological abuse and sexual abuse.

The most common child abuse, according to the latest researches, is neglect. Neglect means the insufficent attention given by the caretakers or parents to their children. Usually neglecting is noticed when the child is dressed in dirty and old clothes, lacks of hygiene, frequently absence to school, ill with no medical assistance and isolated from others. There are three forms of negligence: Physical, emotional and educational.

Physical neglect is represented by careless actions of parent, including not providing adequate food, clothes, the place to live, medical assistance and treatment. Emotional neglect is lies in inattention to child's emotional needs, like support, communication, love, refusal to provide psychological and medical assistance to child with mental problem. Educational neglect is connected with parent's refusal to provide essentially for the child learning such as failure to enroll child in school.

Physical abuse is the second type of abuse. It is connected with a noticeable physical effect on the child. Usually it is related to children punishment when they are doing something wrong. There are also a lot of registered cases of physical abuse without any apparent reason. Physical abuse is often reported by doctors and teachers, in rare occasions by the neighbors who noticed different sign of severe physical injuries on the child body.

Emotional abuse is the third type of child abuse. It is very hard to identify this sorf of ill-treatment. It occurs when the parents ignoring their children, isolating him/her from others, reject his/her request, expect something beyond what he/she can provide in their age level. As a result of emotional abuse, a child can have speech problem, physical development lags, disruptive or hyperactive behaviour.

Sexual abuse is the fourth type of child abuse. It is the least frequency reported type. It is connected with forcing the child to different sexual activities. The child that experiencing this type of abuse will show different physical disorder and signs, not normal for his or her age.

It it very important to understand causes of child abuse to prevent it. According to the studies in this problem, there are three causes of chil abuse; environmental causes, child problems and parental causes.

Familial causes are usually connected with young parent. They are more likely will neglect child's needs either than take care of him/her. We can also include in this group with parent who suffered from abuse and violence in their chilhood and can reproduced only such behaviour. Also, the parent cannot differentiating discipline from physical abuse and trying to use violent methods to teach their children right things. Parent with mental disorgder also can be included in this group because they cannot make a right decision for heir child.

The second cause of child abuse is environmental cause. It is connected with drug and alcohol usage by parents or relatives. Drunk parents are not able to understand their children's needs. Poverty is an another environmental cause. Parents who are poor and don't have much money not able to provide their children with needed care, things and education. Parents with marriage problems or divorced couples can hate their children because they changed the life of the couples, and it usually leads to emotional abuse. In the majority of cases, abusive parent expect their children to make them happy. If a child not able to fullfil the demands, he/she will be beaten and abused.

The abuse causes is child problems. They are usually connected with psychological or physical disorder. It is difficult to take care of such child. Some of the parents are just ignoring thier child needs which results an abuse of child's right.

It doesn't matter what causes of abuse, each cause will affects the child in some way. Some of them will have physical signs and all of them have psychological results.

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