Child abuse refers to threatening and violent maltreatment behavior leveled on a child ( Child Welfare Information Gateway, 2013). Forms of such abuse include physical and emotional abuse and sexual abuse. Child neglect, on the other hand, refers to the failure on the part of a caregiver to provide basic needs required survival and proper upbringing of a child. Neglect can be categorized as physical, medical, or educational (failure to attend to a child’s educational needs.) Failure on the part of a caregiver to provide shelter, food, and clothing to a child constitutes physical neglect. Failure to give or withhold medical treatment to a child is categorized as medical neglect ( Child Welfare Information Gateway 2013). An abused child experiences adverse effects, such as feelings of being worthless and lack of trust and relationship difficulties. Other effects include trouble with learning, low self-esteem, and nightmares. Most child abusers engage in such behaviors because of the need to feel powerful, and they experienced such abuse as children. Though most of the children are usually innocent, others habitually commit criminal acts and offenses. Juvenile delinquency usually occurs as a result of broken families and lack of social and moral training. Parents and caregivers are therefore forced to punish their children in some occasions to reinforce positive desired behavior. Punishing and correcting a child is necessary though it is seldom pleasant. Failure to correct children can cause grave damage in the overall life of a child than an actual correction could. Children who exhibit negative behaviors and remain uncorrected end up abusing drugs, being rude and unruly, and violent and may end up engaging in criminal activities. Correction is a behavioral correction and thus differs from child abuse. Correction aims at correcting behavior, rather than being. To avoid future punishment, corrected children often strive to alter endangering behaviors to regain their parents’ approval. Therefore, parents administering correction should avoid hurling criticizing remarks portraying their children as being unworthy. Child abuse/ neglect begins with a criticism of being rather than behavior. Criticism of being breaks down the spirit and motivation of children ( Sege et al., 2018) . Such criticism communicates the message the child is not good enough. Criticism of being or person makes it difficult for the child to get back to the parent’s good graces because they feel that they will never be worthy. Being careful about the language choice and pointing out the bad, dangerous, and harmful choices, the children have made will enable parents to successfully correct behavior and avoid emotional abuse. The use of unfairly manipulative tactics to correct undesirable behaviors in children is a form of child abuse/neglect. Unfair psychological manipulation and threats that forcefully compel children to submit their mistakes is abuse ( Sege et al., 2018) . The manipulative and forcefully correctional mechanism makes children feel extremely guilty and ashamed by instilling fear in the sense of fear instead of love towards the parents. Children who are compelled by fear will do what their caregivers want only to avoid punishment. Abused children are denied the opportunity to make their own choices and, therefore, do not change their behavior because they feel it is the right thing to do. Comparing children with other children in an attempt to correct behavior is child abuse. Comparison often leads to judgments that have unique characteristics ( Sege et al., 2018) . Such comparison can also lead to the development of hatred and violent behavior towards the offenders. Comparisons become corrective measures only when it complements a child’s progress and maturity. Parents should, therefore, adopt positive disciplinary methods that aim at motivating and rewarding children toward positive behavior. In general, corrective actions are those that show a child that they are valued, appreciated despite not being perfect.
References
Child Welfare Information Gateway. (2013). What is child abuse and neglect? Recognizing the signs and symptoms.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Sege, R. D., Siegel, B. S., ABUSE, C. O. C., & COMMITTEE ON PSYCHOSOCIAL ASPECTS OF CHILD AND FAMILY HEALTH. (2018). Effective discipline to raise healthy children. Pediatrics , 142 (6), e20183112.
