Environmental Factors Affecting Maltreated Children

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.

Child maltreatment is a preventable public health problem. Research has demonstrated that neighborhood structural factors (e.g. poverty, crime) can influence the proportion of a neighborhood’s children who are victims of maltreatment. A newer strategy is the identi- fication of potentially modifiable social processes at the neighborhood level that can also influence maltreatment. Toward this end, this study examines neighborhood-level data (maltreatment cases substantiated by Illinois’ child protection agency, 1995–2005, social processes measured by the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, U.S. Census data, proportions of neighborhoods on public assistance, and crime data) that were linked across clusters of contiguous, relatively

The conceptualisation of the long-term effects of child maltreatment reflects the surrounding circumstances which expose child abuse as a common event. Childhood abuse is a growing epidemic which evokes extreme emotional responses both privately and publicly and is viewed as a risk factor for an extensive variety of consequent problems. 2014 demonstrated that over 137,585 child abuse cases involving 99,210 Australian children were investigated (Australian Institute of Family Studies 2015). Abuse is categorised into neglect, physical abuse, sexual abuse and emotional abuse. Contrary to the implied supposition that emotional abuse is less injurious in comparison to sexual and physical abuse, emotional abuse ranked as the most commonly substantiated harm type in Victoria, Western Australia, Tasmania and the Australia Capital Territory (AIFS 2015). Childhood abuse occurs throughout a period where complex and ordered changes occur within a child’s physiological, psychological and sociological being. The following report will accentuate how the state of flux instigated by childhood abuse leaves children susceptible harmful consequences that will pervert or prevent a normal developmental procedure. Through psychological and physiological wellbeing, adult delinquency and the effects on different genders readers will be able to identify the harmful consequences childhood abuse places on victims and survivors.

Support the assessment of pupils to determine those in need of particular help and support.

Back in the day there were not as many child protecting laws and assisting facilities like there are today. In 1960’s there was very little information as it relates to child abuse. A Canadian psychologist by the name of William L. Marshall said, “you could read all the information in one morning. With the lack of information there was no way for individuals to readily identify what constituted as child abuser. Child abuse before 1875 was in fact the era before child services were created to protect the children.

It has been known, for many years, that childhood maltreatment, including physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, interparental violence, and sexual abuse, has an adverse effect on a developing child. These effects have been thought to be linked to adults later having cognitive deficits and mental disorders when compared to adults with no history of childhood maltreatment (Tomoda, Polcari, Anderson, & Teicher, 2012). It has also been shown that adults who experience childhood maltreatment are more prone to many medical illnesses than their healthy counterparts (Keeshin, Cronholm, & Strawn, 2012). With more recent advances in technology, scientists have been able to research exactly how childhood maltreatment affects development through methods such as MRI, fMRI, and genetic tests (Teicher, Anderson, & Polcari, 2012). Using these findings, scientists have begun to show how childhood maltreatment affects adults later in life. The following literature will support the claim that childhood maltreatment leads to abnormal neurological development which can later have adverse effects on the adult’s mental and physical health.

There have been numerous studies that have been conducted that suggest that child maltreatment rates are disproportionately distributed amongst racial and ethnic groups. For instance, the National Child Abuse and Neglect Data System (NCANDS) reveals that victimization cases were reported at a rate of 21.9% for African Americans, 21.4% for Latinos and 44.8% for Whites (USDHHS, 2011).

The subjects of the test were children between the ages of three to seven years

The US Centers of Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recognizes four types of childhood maltreatment. Any number of effects can result from these unfortunate realities for many children. These effects have potential to increase the likelihood of a substance abuse rather quickly and, sadly, may stick with them for the remainder of their lives. Early experiences of maltreatment increase the likelihood of psychological and emotional distress. In order to escape this pain, individuals may seek help from substances to escape the pain caused from the maltreatment. This being said, experiencing trauma as a child may develop into substance abuse. Additionally, being female has the potential to strengthen chance of substance abuse for individuals

The ecological approach is useful for understanding child maltreatment because the approach focuses on factors that can lead to child maltreatment. A few factors the ecological approach focuses on is community defects, social attitudes, poverty, race and ethnicity, parental characteristics, substance abuse, domestic violence, and animal abuse. By looking at these factors social workers can detect, and prevent child maltreatment cases. By looking at community defects, social workers can see where social services are not meeting the needs of the community. Society attitudes can reflect signs of child abuse, psychological maltreatment, and sexual abuse. Poverty is a major sign of child neglect. Race and ethnicity factors can show signs

Out-of-home care (OOHC) refers to the care of children who are unable to live with their families, usually because they have been subjected to maltreatment, or are at risk of maltreatment (CFCA, 2015a). It has been shown that childhood maltreatment can have significant psychological and physiological effects on childhood development across multiple key domains, including cognitive, social-emotional, academic, and language (Perry, 2002; Perry, 2009; CFCA, 2014). In addition, numerous studies have shown that children who have suffered maltreatment are at a higher risk of experiencing speech and language delays than other children (Arora, Kaltner & Williams, 2014; Nathanson & Tzioumi, 2007; Chambers, Saunders, New, Williams & Stachurska, 2010).

Association) There was a study of 150,000 children aged 10 to 15 and they found that 32

Academic achievement encourages the students to work hard and learns more. It is the status or level of the person’s learning and his ability to apply what he has learnt. It refers to the knowledge attained and skills developed in the school subjects who are assessed by school authorities with the help of achievement test which may be standardized or non-standardized. It also helps the teacher to know whether their teaching was effective or not and therefore helps them according to bring improvement. Academic achievement determines the student’s status in the class. It gives children an opportunity to develop their talents, improve their grades and prepare for the future academic challenges.

These tests are structured in such a way that they give learners an opportunity to demonstrate what they have learned and if they are aligned with the set standards. If they fail in certain areas, they should be able to work on their weak points. This was proven in a study by Jones (2007), as cited in Mons (2009), that these tests allow teachers to identify pupils' strengths and weaknesses and helps in improving the structure of teaching content for each school year, which in return caters for an updated curriculum for students. The Ministry of Education (1993, p. 86) also acknowledges this fact, stating that examination can be used to assess each student’s progress for promotion or selection. That measure of individual achievement can also be used diagnostically, to enable students to see what they have accomplished and where additional study is necessary. Teachers can also use the diagnostic information to determine appropriate remedial

In every school and in every classroom, it becomes apparent that the grouping of students becomes necessary. The necessity arises as the pressure mounts to improve student achievement. The pressure increases as the school and district release standard testing results to the public. Once this data becomes public knowledge the schools in the district are ranked by their levels of achievement. One of the ratings is a school with a high number of scores below grade level being labelled as a low performing school. The school then labels the students who score below grade level as low performing. According to Papay, Mumane & Willett “…students receive abundant information about their educational performance, but how this information affects future educational performance-investment decisions is not well understood” (Papay, Mumane & Willett, 2016). My interest in this subject is related to the determination that once students are labelled as low performing will it affect their desire to improve their academic achievement level or hinder their progress.