Running head: child maltreatment 1

Child abuse

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Child maltreatment 2

Introduction

Child abuse has been seen to be one of the disadvantages of our modern

society, we neglect the future generation and deny them opportunities. Cases of

child abuse over the world have been discovered to be varying from the negligence

of the caretaker of the children to emotional disconnection, and physical abuse.

The most determining factor of child abuse is the relationship between the

caregivers of the children and the children themselves. Parents and guardians are

supposed to be the advocates of the wellbeing of the children. At an early age,

children subjected to child abuse suffer from emotional torture, physical problems

among other challenges. In most cases identified, child abuse has been very

common to the extent that children themselves don’t realize that they are suffering,

to them, it’s a normal way of life. In this case, the victims are subjected to the

harsh reality and their emotional expression adapts to a hostile environment. They

then grow to be of different characters, and their future is doomed as a result

(Kleinman, 2015).

I suffered physical violence which made me terrified of everyone. I couldn’t

defend myself. It was like an infection spreading through my body and one that I

wasn’t aware of which made it more terrible. I thought of child abuse as a normal

way of life. To me, life was never fair and more often I considered myself a victim

of circumstances. When I became aware of child abuse, I had a tough time

accepting myself and moving on with life. It took me years of emotional comfort

and guidance. My educational performance was affected and I wasn’t even aware

of it. The biggest challenge with child abuse is that no matter the form of child

abuse, the victims’ emotions are always affected which makes them more

vulnerable and in most cases helpless.

Every child deserves an equal opportunity to explore their options in life, an

opportunity that the victims of child abuse are denied even before they know that it

existed. Being a firsthand victim of child abuse, there is a lot that needs to be done

by society in order to make some effective changes in the foreseen future of the

young generation. We need to take action and create awareness regarding child

abuse, which brings us to the concern of the impact of child abuse on society

(Kleinman, 2015).

Research question

What is the impact of child abuse on the personal growth and development

of the victims? Psychology, sociology, and anthropology share the assumption that

human behavior can be shared and more often than not, the behavior is contagious

to the surrounding individuals. The surroundings of an individual affect their

behavior, their understanding of nature and their human perspective towards life.

We should be able to analyze how child abuse affects the victims on their growth
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and development and more so how they behave in their adulthood and their

expectations to the society (Nelson, 2016).

Review of literature

Our understanding of child abuse is the major key to ruling out child abuse

within our society. Child abuse can be categorized differently under different

circumstances. In most cases, it can be considered physical, sexual, exploitation,

trafficking and neglect which in most cases is by the caregivers to the children.

With regards to child protection, different definitions of child abuse have been

developed in order to protect children from anyone intending them harm, but

generally, the definitions cover all aspects of child abuse in any way (Nelson,

2016).

Prior studies show that analysis has been done with respect to descriptors

such as non-accidental injury, physical abuse, child neglect, and emotional distress.

According to these analyses, victims of child abuse have adjusted to their system

of child abuse and adapted too (Van, 2017). It has also been made clear that in

order to fight child abuse, it requires combined efforts. It mostly requires parents,

guardians, and caregivers of the children to be more sensitive with them and offer

emotional support, provide their full attention in order to be aware of the most

minor challenges that their children would be experiencing. On the other hand,
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when children have already been abused, it takes even more effort to take them

through the healing process. According to the referenced studies (Nelson, 2016),

social workers may come in handy, child psychiatrists, pediatrics and family

therapy. This is a procedural process that takes time but it has proven to be

effective by all means.

Research methodology

In our case, we need to focus on the intensity of child abuse and the impacts

of child abuse on the victims with regards to their growth and development, their

exposure to the society and how they handle themselves. Qualitative techniques

will be applied in order to existentially analyze the conditions of child abuse and

how severe the cases are and the effects accruing (Christian, 2015).

The qualitative technique will enhance an in-depth and detailed analysis of

the impact of child abuse on the personal growth and development of the victims.

This technique will analyze the magnitude of the child abuse the emotions of the

victims and their behavior in order to have concrete results and provide the

respective actions that need to be taken (Albert, 2017).

Unlike the other techniques, the qualitative technique will be useful in our

case because it will help create openness thus encouraging people to expand and

emphasize their responses. As shown by many studies, most victims of child abuse
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became prone to it, to the extent that they adapted and adjusted to the hostile

environment. They don’t even realize that it’s not a usual thing to be experiencing.

For such cases, qualitative techniques will be very useful in order to dig deep into

the experiences of the victims and their behavioral change as a result (Christian,

2015).

The qualitative technique also attempts to draw analysis rather than create

pre-judgments which may produce unjustified results thus misleading the effective

solutions (Van, 2017).

Research tools

Research of such magnitude requires a great input in the review. Research

can be done through journals, the internet and one on one interviewing of

individuals. In this case, a questionnaire may be disadvantaged because in most

cases they require direct answers. What we need is the specific details of the

victims’ experiences which may be unpredictable, while questionnaires provide a

question that requires a simple answer. Unstructured interview and direct

participation may be preferable because it gives the respondent the platform to put

their emotions, show their behavior and challenge the in-depth analysis of the

situation. The interview should be covert in order to enhance privacy and

confidentiality which will make the respondents less intimidated and more
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cooperative. The internet may also provide detailed information of child abuse

regardless of any required format (Albert, 2017).

References

Albert, V. (2017). From child abuse to permanency planning: Child welfare

services pathways and placements. Routledge.

Christian, C. W., & Committee on Child Abuse and Neglect. (2015). The

evaluation of suspected child physical abuse. Pediatrics, 135(5), e1337-e1354.

Kleinman, P. K. (Ed.). (2015). Diagnostic imaging of child abuse. Cambridge

University Press.

Nelson, B. J. (2016). Making an issue of child abuse. University of Chicago Press.

Van der Kolk, B. A. (2017). This issue: child abuse & victimization. Psychiatric

Annals, 35(5), 374-378.