Child Abuse and Alcoholic Parents: A Comprehensive Analysis

This essay examines the complex relationship between parental alcoholism and child abuse. It explores how excessive alcohol consumption by parents can lead to various forms of child abuse, including physical, emotional, and sexual abuse, as well as neglect. The essay discusses the negative impacts on children, such as behavioral, emotional, and cognitive problems. It references studies and research to support the correlation between alcoholism and child abuse, highlighting the destructive nature of alcoholism on family dynamics. The discussion covers how alcoholic parents often struggle to meet their children's emotional and physical needs, leading to developmental issues. Furthermore, it considers the potential for domestic abuse and the financial strain caused by alcoholism, which can further exacerbate family conflicts and increase the likelihood of abuse. The essay concludes by emphasizing the close connection between alcoholic parents and child abuse, and how alcoholism can have long-term negative impacts on children. The paper references various studies and the World Health Organization to support the arguments.

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ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
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1ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
Table of Contents
Introduction..........................................................................................................................2
Discussion............................................................................................................................2
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................5
References............................................................................................................................6

2ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
Introduction
Alcohol abuse includes the excessive consumption of alcohol habitually. It also includes
such a consumption pattern of alcohol that interferes with the day to day activities of an
individual. In case of alcohol abuse, though a person is not dependent upon the same physically
but still has a serious drinking problem. On the other hand, alcoholism refers to a situation in
which a person drunks alcohol because of their physical need. However in both the cases, there
are some serious negative impacts on the family of the alcoholic person (Devi and Yadav 2016).
These issues may include- domestic abuse, neglecting children, poor family relationship and
others. The main aim of the paper is to discuss about the damaged relationship between parents
and their children as a result of alcohol consumption that results in child abuse. The paper will
discuss about the way the children are abused or neglected by their alcoholic parents.
Discussion
Alcohol abuse or alcoholic people have poor family relationships due to lack of any
strong bonds between them especially between the parent and the child (Freisthler and Wolf
2016). It has been found from a research that alcoholism reduces marital satisfaction dye to
negative interaction between the couples that can also have a negative impact on the mental
health of the children. Moreover people who have a habit of drinking often lie about their
condition to their family members which further breaks trust between the family members and
they are further unable to build strong relationship with each other (Harper and Duryea 2019).
Moreover alcoholism can also affect the mental and physical health of the family members.
Some of the common problems that are faced by the alcoholic people includes- problems related
to digestive systems, risk of heart stroke, mental damage, and also liver disease. The families

3ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
which have an alcoholic parent go through a lot of health problems related to mental issues.
Alcoholism leads to stress and anxiety that causes emotional breakdown in the family members.
Moreover those parents who engage on alcohol consumption drain up all the family
finances which further causes conflicts between the family members that increases the chances
of mental or physical abuse between a family (Van der Kolk 2017). Domestic abuse and child
neglect are the one of the most common drawbacks of alcoholism among parents. This is so
because alcoholic people usually indulge in physical or emotional abuse. Those who drink a lot
of alcohol may insult their family members in front of everyone, humiliate them and manipulate
them in front of others which leads to emotional abuse to their teenage children. According to the
world health organization, about 55 % of the cases of physical assault between partners or
parents mostly occurred when one of the partners or parents were drunk.
The main reason behind physical abuse is the lack of the individual’s ability to control
themselves because of the impact that alcohol has on the physical and cognitive functioning and
as a result people who drink tend to become more violent. Moreover it has also been found out
from research children who have alcoholic parents suffer from risk of behavioural, emotional and
cognitive problems (Tutor 2016). It a significant concern for children because about 6.6 million
children across the globe live households with alcoholic parents. And parents who are alcoholic
fail to understand the emotional and physical needs of children and that further leads to
developmental issues among children. Some of the major problems that is identified in children
include- depression and anxiety, academic problems, children become dishonest, and they may
also suffer from some other long term impacts. Therefore from the above paragraph, some of the
major types of emotional abuses that children go through due to the alcoholic patents have been
understood (Lakshmamma and Kalavati 2018).

4ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
According to research there is a strong relation between alcoholism and physical child
abuse. Moreover Alcoholism is considered as a destructive disorder due to its negative impact
son children. According to researches, it has been found out that about 1 million children are
faced with child abuse or neglect. There are a number of abuses associated with the consumption
of alcohol by the parents such as sexual abuse, physical abuse and emotional abuse and also
child neglect (Politakis et al. 2017). Physical abuses include maltreatment of children as a result
of alcohol consumption by parents in form of physical injuries such as burns, welts, cuts and
fractures. There have also been cases of sexual abuse of children by their alcoholic parents. The
sexual abuse includes- touching, fondling and other abusive behaviours towards children.
Children are also neglected as through lower levels of care form their parents as compared to
other parents who are not alcoholics.
However from researches, it has also been understood that there may not always be a
relation between alcoholism and child abuses. Moreover even if in some cases, relationship has
been found, the extent of relationship between alcoholic parents and child abuse have not been
understood (Omkarappa and Rentala 2019). Therefore although this statement that “all alcoholic
parents abuse their children” is not completely true however studies have shown that there is a
relationship and that most of the parents who are alcoholics may abuse their children in any one
of the forms as mentioned above- sexual abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse or eve neglect.
This can be said because the likelihood of child abuse increases when they have an alcoholic
parent according to NIAAA or NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALCOHOL AND
ALCOHOLISM.

5ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
Conclusion
Therefore from the above discussion, it is clear that there is close relationship between
the alcoholic parents and child’s physical, emotional and sexual abuse. Some of the major factors
that leads to child abuse have also been understood from the study. From the paper, the way
alcoholism affects the relationship between the parents and children have been discussed.
Alcoholism is a destructive disorder because it makes the children feel alienated from others,
ashamed due to their parents activities, and in many situations there can be a role reversal
between children and their parents due to alcoholism that has got some major long term impact
over their cognitive thinking.

6ALL ALCOHOLIC PARENTS ABUSE THEIR CHILDREN
References
Devi, A.M. and Yadav, R., 2016. Knowledge regarding child abuse among parents. International
Journal of Advances in Nursing Management, 4(3), pp.191-193.
Freisthler, B. and Wolf, J.P., 2016. Testing a social mechanism: does alcohol outlet density
moderate the relationship between levels of alcohol use and child physical abuse?. Violence and
victims, 31(6), pp.1080-1099.
Harper, N.S. and Duryea, T.K., 2019. Child neglect: Evaluation and management. Disponibile da
https://www-uptodate-com/contents/child-neglect-evaluation-andmanagement.
Lakshmamma, V.T. and Kalavati, S., 2018. Parental Alcohol-Impact on Children. International
Journal of Nursing Education, 10(1), pp.37-42.
Omkarappa, D.B. and Rentala, S., 2019. Anxiety, depression, self-esteem among children of
alcoholic and nonalcoholic parents. Journal of family medicine and primary care, 8(2), p.604.
Politakis, V.A., Pregelj, P., Paska, A.V. and Zupanc, T., 2017. Association between alcohol
abuse, childhood adverse events and suicide. TEST-ZV, 86(9-10), pp.365-372.
Tutor, M.A., 2016. Child Abuse & Neglect Research article. Child Abuse & Neglect, 60, pp.10-
17.
Van der Kolk, B.A., 2017. Developmental trauma disorder: toward a rational diagnosis for
children with complex trauma histories. Psychiatric annals, 35(5), pp.401-408.