Abuse and Heredity Research question: Is child abuse hereditary?
There are many types of abuse such as alcohol abuse, drug abuse, domestic abuse just to name a few but of all the types of abuse there is one type of abuse that is probably one of the easiest to pass down and that is child abuse. Child abuse is easy to pass down because we look to what we know when were not certain what to do. The term for passing down child abuse is known as intergenerational abuse. There are four methods of child abuse and they are physical, sexual, neglect, and emotional abuse (Baltes, Smelser, Pg 1672). In the study of a sixteen year old mother who had been abused her whole life, it was found that the mother resorted to spanking her five month old
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Capaldi and Pears studies show that abuse is found in low socioeconomical environments and also with relatively young parents (2001, pg 1442). Bensley says one process of intergenerational abuse is the normative beliefs regarding appropriate parenting behaviors, which she describes as believing that certain abusive behavior are normal ( Bensley, Ruggles, Simmons, Harris, Williams, Putvin, Allen, 2003, pg 1323). Which supports the idea that an abusive parent justifies abuse as a legitimate punishment ( Bensley, Ruggles, Simmons, Harris, Williams, Putvin, Allen, 2003, pg 1331). Graur identifies 3 different cause of child abuse and neglect, the first cause is called the “economic theory” which says economic depression or socioemotional difficulties cause rejection behaviors on the part of the parent (1996, p.55-56). The second cause is called the ecological theory which says any disorder affecting society will also affect the family (1996, p. 56). The third and final cause of neglect found by Graur is called the personality theory which states that traits such as low self esteem, sadness, and previous experiences affect the way a parent acts towards a child (1996, p.56). In the article titled Child abuse there are 4 main cause of child abuse identified, the first has to do with life history and personality meaning their own experiences as a
There are certain demographics that are more prone to child abuse. Lower income families and young single mothers are the most likely to have child abuse in the home. This is due to the levels of stress in these types of families. When a person gets too stressed, and is not given the proper tools and resources to let that stress out, naturally it goes to a person that is close to them. Most of the time it is the children, all it takes is for the child to do something small, it can be something natural such as crying for no apparent reason as children often do, to take the abuser from simply over stressed to their breaking point.
Child abuse and neglect have immediate and long-term consequences. In addition to negatively impacting the child, child abuse and neglect impacts the family, the school community, and even future generations. The ability to survive and be successful in the face of child abuse and neglect depends on a variety of factors, including the extent and type of abuse or neglect, whether it was continual or infrequent, the age of the child when abuse was initiated, the child’s relationship to the abuser, and how the abuse or neglect was responded to. Outcomes are also dependent on the child’s personality traits, inner strength, and the support the child receives from those around them. It is important to acknowledge that some children will not develop behavioral problems, so it cannot be assumed that a
Children in homes where there is abuse usually end up either, being abused themselves or being neglected. This is where they generally learn to become abusers themselves.
Howe (2010) states “The majority of parents who maltreat their children have problems metalizing their children’s psychological condition. Their own histories tend to be ones of rejection, abuse, neglect, trauma and loss. Never having been fully recognized as an independent, complex psychological being themselves, they have problems relating to their children as complex, separate psychological beings” (pg. 336).
Abuse can come in many different forms such as verbal, physical, and sexual. Each of these can affect a person differently, and sadly even become hereditary. A factor that causes abuse to be so lethal is that the majority of the time it is directed towards children. At a young age, the brain is extremely impressionable and that is why something like verbal abuse can cause so much damage. “Parents who tell their children that they are dumb, bad, etc., raise children who think they are dumb or bad and act as
We hypothesized that inter- generational transmission would be more common when assessing homotypic transmission, and that risk for transmission of neglect and multiple type maltreatment is highest when mothers experienced multiple forms of maltreatment during childhood. As the rate of physical abuse is typically low in early childhood, we did not expect to be able to examine physical abuse in both
Moreover, another factor believed to contribute to child abuse is the widespread belief that it is completely appropriate to utilize physical punishment when disciplining children. The book claims that parents tend to cross the line between “appropriate” physical punishment and child abuse when they get angry and use physical punishment for discipline their children. Also, the book claims that they are various social factors that contribute to child abuse. These are lack of education, poverty, family problems, and unemployment. These factors all have the ability to cause individuals a great deal of stress. When stress builds up in an individual, an individual may be more likely to become physically aggressive towards their children whenever
The psychological theory and the sociological also have the “cycle of abuse”; children who were abused as children do not know any other way of parenting and so abuse their own children, which can result in depression and trauma, which can continue the cycle.
There are many things in our society today that unfortunately go overlooked. One such thing that is overlooked is the number of children who are being abused. Unfortunately these children are going through life not knowing whether or not their parents will loose their temper and perhaps kill them. There are many types of child abuse, such as physical, sexual, and emotional. Physical abuse is physical injury as a result of punching, beating, kicking, biting, shaking, throwing, stabbing, choking, hitting, burning, or otherwise harming a child. Such injury is considered abuse regardless of whether the caretaker intended to hurt the child. Sexual abuse includes activities by a parent or caretaker such as fondling a child's genitals,
Bandura’s social learning theory and Bowlby’s attachment theory. Each of these theories has similarities and distinctions regarding the mechanisms that underlie the impact of child abuse. This essay will examine these competing theories to determine which mechanisms are most strongly supported for families at high risk for child abuse and/or neglect (Begle, Dumas & Hanson, 2010).
Most parents and other caregivers do not intend to hurt their children, but abuse is defined by the effect on the child, not the motivation of the parents or caregiver.Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them.Child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most of us can’t imagine what would make an adult use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. But the incidence of parents and other caregivers consciously, even willfully, committing acts that harm the very children they’re supposed to be nurturing is a sad fact of human society that cuts
Every year, child abuse and neglect affect more than one million children nation-wide (Currie and Tekin 1). Along with this, child abuse is the source of severe injury to more than 500,000 children and the death of over 1,500 children (Currie and Tekin 1). These outrageously large numbers reveal the extent to which child abuse and neglect impact society; however, they do not acknowledge the effect abuse can have on a child’s life and the repercussions that may occur in both the individual’s childhood and adulthood. While the effects most certainly include physical pain and possibly future disabilities, child abuse and neglect can also affects the child’s psychological welfare. Psychological effects are often more difficult to recognize,
Children advance through a series of life changing events while growing up. Plenty of them are cheerful milestones that are celebrated for instance a birthday or an accomplishment, and then there are those children who are neglected and abused by another family member. When a child is abused or neglected, it not only affects them when they are children, but also affects them when they become functioning adults in society. A sociological social psychology perspective that can be applied to explain why child abuse happens which is the social structure and personality perspective. This perspective can also find a way to solve child abuse in the home. Child abuse is a social problem that has been happening for plenty of decades in our society and with the social structure and personality perspective, one is able to help explain why it happens and how the problem can be solved.
Currie and Widom discusses how child abuse and child neglect represent major threats to child health and well-being. The article discusses adults that have experienced childhood abuse or neglect have lower levels of education, employment, earnings and fewer assets when their adults compared to children who have not experienced it. Apparently, the adults that were abused and neglected were in menial and lower paid jobs than the adults that were not. The authors also talk about how child abuse increases the negative consequences in a child adult life across multiple domains of functioning and developmental time points, including psychiatric, social, behavioral (crime and violence) and interpersonal functioning. This article could be used for researchers and educators. The author uses excellent examples and sources, but the text will specifically be used to provide some data my research
Family situations in which both parents are under mass amounts of stress and must work tediously to make ends meet are often inclined to have victims of child abuse in the home. Often because of troubled times economically parents reach a breaking point and enforce their anger onto his or her child, beating them physically. In many cases, parents take “teaching their child a lesson” to very high extremes, using the act of discipline to mask an act of physical child abuse. While many parents abuse under stress and frustration, some are too young or immature to handle the responsibilities of a child; not containing the capacity or patience to care for a young one often ends in abuse. As seen there many cases in which guardians cannot handle the tasks of parenthood, leading to acts of abuse. Whereas, there are also many cases in which parents suffer from disorders, increasing the probability of child abuse in a home.