Definitions of child abuse depend on the preva iling ethic values since they connect to parenting, child development, and children. Defining child abuse differs along the sector of the community that deals with the matter, like child advocates, practitioners, researchers, public health officials, legal and medical communities, and child protection agencies. Therefore, child maltreatment can be defined as any emotional, erotic or somatic neglect or abuse of any kid or kids, specifically by the caregivers or parents.
Child maltreatment also includes any failure or act that is acted by caregivers or parents which results in the potential or actual harm to the child or children. Child maltreatment or child abuse can take place in the homes of the child or children, or in the organization, institutions or societies the kid intermingles with (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans ‐ Kra & van Ijzendoorn, 2015). There are four main distinguished types of child maltreatment: neglect, psychological maltreatment, erotic maltreatment, and physical maltreatment.
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Neglect
Child neglect can be referred to as the failure of the parents or caregivers to give required medical care, shelter, clothing, food, or even the needed supervision to the grade which the well-being, safety, or the health of the child or children might be endangered with harm. It is also the lack of devotion from the individuals who surround the child, and the non-provision of the applicable and suitable requirements for the being of the child, which could be the lack of nature, love, and attention (Moylan, & Russo, 2010). There are various signs of child neglect that can be observed such as: if the child lacks enough clothing for the weather, the child is always dirty, lack of required medical and dental care, the child begs or steals money or food, or if the kid is always absent from school.
In America, the Child Protective Services state that “in the past decades, neglect was the greatest common form of abuse .” Neglected kids in adoptive and foster homes manifest different behavioral and emotional responses to gain the secure or lost relationship (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans ‐ Kra & van Ijzendoorn, 2015). These children in this state cannot see the parents or caregivers as the basis of well-being, and so they display an upsurge in hyperactive as well as aggressive acts that might disturb the secure or healthy attachment the parent who adopted them.
Psychological abuse
Psychological abuse can be defined as the repeated patterns of the frequent behaviors of the caregivers which convey to the kids that they are endangered, unwanted, unloved, flawed, worthless, or they are only of value in summiting the needs of others. Research has it that almost three million American kids go through some forms of psychological abuse yearly. Psychological abuse is the most prevalent as well as a challenging form of child neglect and maltreatment (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans ‐ Kra & van Ijzendoorn, 2015). Additional research in 2015 stated that the sufferers of emotional maltreatment might respond by creating some distance from the abusers, adopting the rude words, or struggling back by insulting the abusers. Therefore, emotional maltreatment might result in overly passive behaviors, learned helplessness, self-blame, and abnormal or disrupted attachment development.
Sexual abuse
This can be defined as the involvement of a kid or kids erotic acts that are aiming towards the physical satisfaction or the commercial profit of the individual obligating the act. There are several forms of child sexual abuse: using a kid to produce child pornography, viewing the kid’s genital without physical contact, physical contact with the kid’s genitals, actual sexual contact with a kid, displaying pornography to the kid, indecent exposures of the genitals to a kid, or forcing a kid to engage in sexual activities. These kids who are might encounter some effects such as physical injury, mental illness, anxiety, depression, somatic complaints, suicidal ideations, self-injury, addiction, chronic pains, sexual dysfunctions, self-esteem difficulties, insomnia, nightmares, flashbacks, self-blame, and guilt (Moylan, & Russo, 2010). They are also at a high risk of being affected by the sexually transmitted diseases.
Roughly 15% to 25% of females and 5% to 155 of males in America were abused erotically in their childhood stages. These erotic abuse victims are familiar with their offenders; about 30% are their family members, mostly cousins, uncles, mothers, fathers, sister, or brothers; approximately 60% are other associates like neighbors, babysitters, or family friends; and 10% are the strangers (Moylan, & Russo, 2010).
Physical abuse
In most cases, physical abuse never happens in isolations, but as part of the arrangement of behavior like an anxiety-provoking act, authoritarian control, and lack of parental warmth. Therefore physical abuse or maltreatment can be defined as the practice of somatic forces intentionally alongside a kid that outcome in the dignity or development of the child, survival, or harm for the kid's health (Moylan, & Russo, 2010). These acts include suffocating, poisoning, burning, scalding, strangling, biting, shaking, kicking, beating, and hitting. The objects of punishing cause extreme physical violence against kids in homes .
Many countries with child maltreatment laws believe that these considered inflictions of serious injuries, or actions which lead the kid to known risks of severe injuries or deaths, as not legal. According to Alice Miller, one of the psychologists, states that slaps in the face, spankings, and beatings, and also humiliations are forms of maltreatment since they harm the dignity and integrity of the kid, though their effects are not evident (Stoltenborgh, Bakermans ‐ Kra & van Ijzendoorn, 2015) . In most cases, kids who undergo physical abuse have mental and physical difficulties in the coming future. These difficulties include aggression, substance abuse, eating disorders, suicidal ideations, anxiety, unhappiness, dissociative disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder, personal disorders, and re-victimization. Physical maltreatment in early childhood can also be related to being homeless in the adulthood stage.
References
Moylan, C. A., Herrenkohl, T. I., Sousa, C., Tajima, E. A., Herrenkohl, R. C., & Russo, M. J. (2010). The effects of child abuse and exposure to domestic violence on adolescent internalizing and externalizing behavior problems. Journal of Family Violence , 25 (1), 53-63.
Stoltenborgh, M., Bakermans ‐ Kranenburg, M. J., Alink, L. R., & van Ijzendoorn, M. H. (2015). The prevalence of child maltreatment across the globe: Review of a series of meta ‐ analyses. Child Abuse Review , 24 (1), 37-50.
