Child Maltreatment And Its Effects On Children With Disabilities

Childhood maltreatment is a prevalent problem through out the world. As a child grows and matures the brain continues to develop according its experiences. During this time sensitive periods of development for different areas of the brain. A few areas that are of interest are the stress-influenced areas, which are at an increased risk for developmental problems when exposed to maltreatment. The extra stress from such exposures can influence abnormalities throughout the brain, which have been linked to structure changes with in the corpus callosum, anterior cingulate, dorsolateral prefrontal, orbitofrontal cortex, and hippocampus, amygdala, and cerebellum, as well as changes to stress related hormone systems. These structural changes are associated with an increased risk of psychopathology and other life long educational and physiological risk.

The importance of Childhood Trauma is associated with the way children react later on in their life, as it plays an important role. There are several different types of maltreatment that are associated with abuse that can harm the child in the long run. Any type of physical abuse, emotional abuse or sexual abuse contributes to the negative affects that can change the child’s personality. If the child’s parents obtain physical neglect or emotional neglect, it can factor in changing a child’s moods, as it causes them to change into a different person. This experience causes them to develop different types of personality disorders such as Antisocial, Borderline, Narcissistic, Paranoia, Schizoid, and Schizotypal. Many children are affected through the terrible experience which develops mistrust in the world, and later causes them to turn against society because of the constant neglect that is inflicted onto them.

The safety and security of many children across the world are in danger due to physical abuse. Child abuse has been linked to an assortment of changes in the brain which result in psychological, behavioral, and academic problems. While it is unclear whether the population that had been maltreated as children is accurate, physical maltreatment in the first 5 years of life places a child at risk for a variety of psychological and behavioral problems during adolescence. The following three literature reviews attempts to prove and support the premise.

Child Maltreatment is still a problem plaguing children today, including children with disabilities, as it is a leading cause of serious childhood injuries and fatalities (Hibbard & Desch, 2007).Child maltreatment affects millions of children each year. In 2015, child protective service agencies received an estimated 4 million referrals involving approximately 7.2 million children and it was estimated that 683,000 of those children were victims of child maltreatment (U.S., 2017). Child maltreatment

The maltreatment of children affects many areas are including that child’s genes, nervous system, and brain; another area that is indirectly affected by a child’s maltreatment is our society.

Child maltreatment is a term that covers a broad spectrum of child mistreatment including, child abuse (physical, sexual, and emotional) and child neglect (emotional and physical). Long term effects of child maltreat vary depending on the severity of the abuse or neglect and the length of time that the child is exposed to the abuse (i.e. if it is a onetime event or ongoing chronic exposure). As Greeson, et al. (2011), points out, child maltreatment experiences tend to be both chronic and multifaceted, creating multiple long term consequences for adult survivors.

Maltreatment of Children With Disabilities is not a topic that is intensely covered in textbook, however it is a serious public health issue. Child maltreatment is a disturbing social problem in American culture. There are currently four categories of child maltreatment that include: physical abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, and emotional maltreatment. The term “disability” is used broadly and includes physical, mental, and emotional deficiencies. According to the textbook, results have shown that the rate of child maltreatment was

From a historical perspective, child maltreatment has varied in form depending the time and place and the standing of which children hold within family and society. Child maltreatment as defined by the, includes physical, sexual, or emotional abuse, in addition to neglect (National Institution, 2011). Early childhood experiences create the basis for expression of intelligence, emotions, and personality (National Institution, 2011). When these experiences are predominantly negative, the stage is set for emotional, developmental, and behavioral problems that persist throughout life. Studies have shown that the brains of children who have experienced long-lasting abuse and neglect remain in a state of "hyper-arousal" or anticipation of forthcoming danger. This hyper-arousal may affect learning and the ability to form emotional bonds with others (National Institution, 2011). In the book Children and criminality, Flowers give a historical background of child maltreatment leading to his findings of how the treatment of children was and is based on seven distinct premises; (1) the value of children in a given time and place (2) how they fit into the structure of society; (3) religious beliefs and superstitions; (4) exploitation; (5) societal ideology; (6) economic stresses; and (7) psychological and societal induced stresses (Flowers, 1986).

From an outside perspective, one could witness the behaviors but at the scientific level, one sees the biological cause for this behavior. Lisa J. Cohen states the scientific overview of how child abuse affects the brain (Cohen 413). Psychological trauma can affect the very structure of the brain cells. Trauma can cause the growth of myelination (growth of a fatty

Child maltreatment proves to be an issue afflicting children today, and this does not leave out children with disabilities. It is a fundamental cause of childhood fatalities (Hibbard & Desch, 2007). Millions of children are affected every year due to child maltreatment. During the year 2015, child protective services registered 4 million referrals that involved about 7.2 million children, and it was determined that 683,000 of them were indeed suffering due to child maltreatment which can occur in many methods and children

Maltreatment in children is described in four different forms those are physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, or neglect (Taylor et al., 2016). Roughly 700,000children are victims of abuse or neglect, (Child Abuse Statistics - American SPCC, 2016). Children who experience maltreatment often lack the ability to form secure attachments, because their abuse is often at the hand of immediate family members or close friends, (Child Abuse Statistics - American SPCC," 2016). When the abuser is the mother, the child often learns to become an abuser or exhibits aggressive behavior during their adolescents and adulthood, (Ellenbogen, Trocmé, & Wekerle, 2013). In addition to the possibility of becoming an abuser or an aggressor when children

Childhood trauma has life-long effect on genes and the brain. (Web. 9 May 2016) It’s a growing issue throughout the world. A lot of abuse can and does scar a person physically and/or emotionally for life. Child abuse needs to be recognized more than it is. It’s something that should not go unnoticed and definitely should not be ignored. People need to stop worrying about little things and focus on the big picture. A “big picture” like child abuse. Child abuse can be known as four type’s physical, psychological, sexual, or neglect. There are different kinds of child abuse, which can include sexual harassment, lack of care in their upbringing, and even disrupting their education.

Maltreatment is a sever form of parental abuse that could really take a toll on a developing child. Children should be treated with the utmost care because they are developing and growing physically, physiologically, and emotionally everyday for starters. It has always been a known staple that children need to get enough sleep, eat their vegetables, along with a healthy diet, and follow and healthy regimen in order to reach full healthy potential. Malnourishment effects organ growth and cognitive skills. Unfortunately children need assistance when they are young and cannot do everything for themselves. This is where parents come into play and could make or break a child’s developmental potential. Children learn a lot from their parents, every child has whether its good or bad, things to avoid, or encourage, learning is happening, absorbing. Most people would think that a child who was abused by a form of maltreatment as a child would undoubtedly provide and nourish properly their own. Evidence suggests that is not always the case surprisingly. Some confirmation proposes that grown-ups who were mishandled or disregarded as children are at expanded danger of intergenerational misuse or disregard contrasted with the individuals who were not abused as kids (Kwong, Bartholomew, Henderson, & Trinke, 2003; Mouzos & Makkai, 2004; Pears & Capaldi, 2001). Folks who had encountered physical misuse in youth were fundamentally more inclined to take part

They wanted to know whether the methylation patterns among the children who have suffered from abusive parenting mirrored the effects observed among the rodents who did not have adequate maternal care (Romens 305). They concluded that, “if precise epigenetics changes appear across species following poor parental care, then it would reveal a specific molecular mechanism, whereby social experience confers risk of psychopathology” (Romen 305). The method used for participants was random sampling in which the participants were recruited through newspaper ads, bus ads, and flyers in the communities. They chose 56 children, 30 males and 26 females. Written assent and consent were obtained for all children and parents as well as receiving permission for the researchers to access Child Protective Services records on their families. During testing, genomic DNA was extracted from whole blood and converted for methylation sequencing. After the DNA underwent bisulfite pyrosequencing, the researchers conducted independent sample t-tests and Pearson chi-square tests to see whether or not maltreatment groups differed in sex, age, race, and SES. The results were that children with a history of maltreatment did not differ in these categories than the children without a history of maltreatment. On the other hand, the children with histories of maltreatment had families with lower SES and they had more methylation at CpG site 3 and CpG site 7 and less methylation at CpG site 2. It was revealed that children who experienced maltreatment displayed an epigenetic change to the glucocorticoid receptor gene and had more methylation of several sites within exon 1F of the NR3C1 promoter region. Unfortunately, the study could not address causality or the cellular processes occurring within the brains of living children (Romens 307). Because of the

Stalker, Kirsten, and Katherine McArthur. "Child Abuse." Child Abuse 21.1 (2012): 24-40. Web. 20 Oct. 2010.