Symbolic Interactionist Perspective On Child Abuse

physical abuse in high-risk families (those families with violent adults, alcohol and drug abuse and mental health issues)

This article provides eight ways to be able to help break family dysfunction. It gives out specific statistics from different studies such as “Boys who witness domestic violence in their own home are three times more likely to become batterers” and “One's dysfunctional personal behavior becomes a model or example to the next generation, and the cycle can be repeated over and over again”. These statistics are meant to make the readers more aware that what parents do directly affects and trickles down to the

When I was in middle school, we read A Child Called “It” by Dave Pelzer in my English class. I remember crying and wondering “How could someone you love and who is supposed to love you hurt you so bad?” I also remember thinking that there was no way this was really a serious issue. I didn’t think it really happened all that much, especially if the child never did anything wrong. I quickly realized this wasn’t the case. I had never been so shocked before. So many children are being hurt for no reason. I also learned that I knew people who had been abused in some way, and I even came to know more people. It made me appreciate my family so much more. Do we have our issues? Oh yes, we are far from perfect? But I was never neglected or abused in any sense by family. Then I did more research and learned about more abuse like domestic violence in adults. Anyone is vulnerable to abuse and there needs to be more people educated in the signs of abuse so we can save these people before it causes long-term or permanent affects. I wondered more than anything how this “tradition” got started.

Other times, unfortunately, the offender may be an immediate family member, close relative or family friend that the child knows and loves. In a study conducted by Ullman (2007), 733 college students completed a self-administered survey. The survey was twenty pages in length and asked students about personal CSA experiences. One section of the survey specifically asked about perpetrator identity, which was divided into three separate groups: stranger, neighbor/acquaintance, or relative. Subsequently, the degree of emotional closeness to the perpetrator before and after the abuse took place was assessed by single-item Likert-style questions. Results of this study showed that abuse by relatives was more severe than abuse by strangers or acquaintances, and abuse began at a significantly younger age for victims of relatives than for victims of acquaintances (Ullman 2007). As expected, the results of this study also showed that more PTSD symptoms were found in victims who were abused by a relative. Consistent with this finding, Bornstein, Kaplan, and Perry (2007) reported that sexual abuse, whether mild or severe, was rated by victims as more traumatic and severe if the perpetrator was a parent rather than a babysitter. The results of this particular finding are illustrated in the following

These schemas, such as abuse is a way of showing love or connecting with someone, may influence and motivate adult interpersonal behavior, thereby increasing the likelihood of subsequent victimization or perpetration of abuse (Cloitre, Cohen, & Scarvalone, 2002). Revictimization, including intimate partner violence, and perpetration, such as abusing one’s child, are well documented among survivors of childhood abuse, and each has consistently been found as a significant correlate of child abuse history (Rodriguez et al.,

Department of Health and Human Services confirmed over 754,000 cases of child maltreatment; nearly 18% were victims of physical maltreatment or child physical abuse (Tucker & Rodriguez, 2014). Stress is a major contributor to child physical cruelty possibility. Parent-child aggression can be characterized along with a selection, where physical discipline alternates at some point to become physically violent, contributing to the difficulty in unique physical discipline switches at some points to become physically abusive. Physical abuse often occurs within the environment of a parent administering physical discipline. The concept of child abuse potential includes beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors identified in abusive parents to estimate the likelihood that a parent will engage in physical discipline that becomes abusive. Family dysfunction alone has long been recognized as insufficient to lead to abuse. Abusive families are more likely to display an unstable and unpredictable family structure. Larger family size was associated with greater abuse

Family violence includes spousal intimate partner violence and child abuse and neglect. In reading about Intimate partner violence I was not surprised to find that poverty plays a big role in violent tendencies in relationships. Personally,

Here many would probably object that socioeconomic levels do play a part in abusive rates amongst households, but it does not. Once again Karas’ statistics in the Bennington Banner may change many people’s perception on abuse and how it does not relate to a person’s social status. Childhelp has revealed not only socioeconomic levels not being a factor of in abusive households, but all religions, ethnic and cultural beliefs also do not play an effect on the odds of abuse taking place in a home. Surprisingly “education levels” also play no part in the odds of abuse coming from the family home

Adolescents in single-parent households that were probably subjected to abuse as a child may go on to exhibit similar behavior toward their children in the future. Eliana Gil, PhD, suggests that “some adults abused as children do become aggressors…By acting out the role of the abuser, they may be unconsciously trying to understand why the earlier abuse occurred” (Gil, 1988). This clarifies the fact that though the adolescents may not at first demonstrate violent behavior, they may expose this role of the abuser when triggered later in life. Abused adolescents become abusers of their children due to frustration caused by how they were raised as a child, what current situation they may be in, or difficulties in accepting behaviors of their spouse or children. Ultimately, the individual abuses the people that are closest to them, such as spouses and children. As this continues, resentment and tension is built up within the family and thus recommencing the abusive cycle throughout generations.

Estroff and Zimmer (1994), further elaborates in which family members who are caregivers as well as partners, are sometimes targets of a range of abusive behaviours such as verbal, physical and emotional abuse by whom they are caring for, in which this may be intensified if there is low active participation in treatment programs. However, it is important to note that this can be intensified by ‘inadequate services and poor treatment compliance’ (Lukens & Solomon, 2013 p.

Abusive households often have common characteristics. The first of which is being unpredictable and full of uncertainty (Artime, 2017f). Herman (1992) writes that there are often everchanging petty rules enforced through violence and threats of it. Due to the unpredictable nature, it creates feelings of helplessness for the child (Herman, 1992) The child experiences the destruction of competing relationships through isolation, secrecy and betrayal. The child will often not be allowed to have outside relationships and is not allowed to talk about their home life due to threats and actual abuse. The abuser even isolates them from their own family preventing a sense of solace and comfort (Herman, 1992). The family still

The theory that best connects with the issue of family violence is systems theory. This theory entails that the “family as a system is thought to be best understood through the recognition that family members (as the parts of the system) interact with one another in such a manner that, over time, these interactions become patterned behavior” (Sutphin, McDonough, Schrenkel, 2013) Every family member that is within this family are characterized as subsystems. The main sub-systems are parent-parent, parent-child, and child-child. In most cases, what happens in the parent-parent relationship impacts both the parent-child relationship and the child-child relationship. A type of violence that can occur between the parent and parent relationship

The social structure and personality perspective represents the connections between the conditions of society and the individual. In child abuse, this perspective fits in due to parent having a role as either a mother or father to protect the child from harm and raise them, but if that role fails and the child is abused or neglected by the parents, the child can suffer while growing up. Child abuse happens for multiple reasons that include the child’s parent might have unrealistic expectations that deals with what parenthood is all about and realize it is extremely difficult or

When you are a child you look to family to protect you from the horrors of the outside world. You ultimately find out that it may be those protectors who hurt you the most.

In today’s society, child abuse is widespread and has an affect on everyone who comes across it. The act of child abuse happens everyday to a variety of kids who are typically younger and scared to tell anyone. All children are born with the right to be able to develop, grow, live and love according to their needs and feelings. For a child 's development they need protection and reassurance from adults who love them and help them acquire the skills to be a successful adult. However, some children are neglected and hurt by adults that they trust. The abuse a child receives makes them feel bad about themselves, and it is much worse when it occurs within a family because it makes them feel unloved and alone causing them to have problems. “Abuse of all types was more frequent in those from disturbed and disrupted family backgrounds. Logistic regressions indicated that some, though not all, of the apparent associations between abuse and adult problems was accounted for by this matrix of childhood disadvantage from which abuse so often emerged. Numerous studies have investigated the psychological sequelae of childhood trauma, including posttraumatic stress disorder(PTSD), dissociation, personality disorder, and substance abuse ”(“New Retrospective Measure of Child Abuse and Neglect” by David P. Bernstein). The act of child abuse causes kids to have one or more mental problems. Additionally, since people do not recognize the abuse while it is occurring, it causes these problems to