Essay: Psychological Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect

This essay examines the critical societal issue of child abuse and neglect, exploring its various forms, including physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. It identifies the target users as children under 18 who have experienced abuse, highlighting the devastating statistics on child fatalities and the long-lasting emotional impacts. The essay discusses the diverse needs of these victims, such as establishing a safe environment, providing structure, fostering a sense of identity and belonging, and emphasizes the significance of addressing the problem, citing the economic costs and its impact on future generations. The essay concludes by suggesting innovative solutions like counseling, psychotherapy, and integrative therapy to help victims develop self-awareness and emotional resilience. The study underscores the importance of innovative approaches in order to protect children and provide them with the support they need to heal and thrive.

Running head: CHILD ABUSE AND NEGLECT
Child Abuse and Neglect
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
There are several vital issues within the society that gets overlooked, most of the times.
Child abuse and neglect can be stated as one of those issues. Child abuse can be categorized into
various types- sexual, physical as well as emotional. Physical abuse involves physical injuries
which are mainly caused by kicking, punching, beating or several other ways of harming a child.
According to the recent statistics, every 12 out of 1000 children aged under 17, have faced child
abuse. Last year, approximately 6 million children were reported abused.
Discussion
Who is our user?
The group of children below the age of 18, who have faced child abuse in one form or the
other are our targeted users. A statistical research was conducted in the year 2017, which clearly
showed that roughly a total of 1720 children died due to child abuse and neglect in that particular
year. 71% of which were below the age group of 3. It also put forward a shocking fact of 5
children dying almost every day as a result of child abuse.
Each and every individual child who has been a victim of child abuse and neglect can
respond in their own ways. Although there are some children who are able to recover from this
trauma quite fast, most of the children have a long lasting emotional impact. There are certain
factors like age, type of abuse faced by the child, intensity of the abuse and the relationship
between the child and the perpetuator which act as a catalyst in influencing the emotional
impacts. The impacts of abuse are serious. The victim often does self-harm and gets prone to
suicidal tendencies. Other severe impacts also include use of drugs and alcohol, social

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discomfort, trouble in concentrating and repeating grades. Abuses can take severe tolls on the
victim child which can have a negative impact on his or her cultural and emotional development.
What are their needs?
There are several steps that can be followed in order to fulfill the unspoken needs of a
child who had been a victim of child abuse. These are briefly discussed below:
Meeting the expectations
Since school is a place, where a child spends his/her most part of the day, implementing
a safe classroom environment can be immensely helpful. Teachers play a vital role in this case.
Treating the victim properly by taking care of all the emotional needs is very important. A safe
environment will potentially help the child to grow back the lost self-esteem.
Structure
The abused children may feel powerless at times and may lose control over the things
happening around them. Furthermore, feeling threatened is a common aspect of the trauma as
well. In that case, the needful thing to be done is to assure the children that they are safe by
providing them with a sense of control. A positive behavior and supportive nature of the people
surrounding them is one of the key necessities.
Identity
A child, who has been abused in a way which met the needs of an adult thus suppressing
his/her needs often lacks a sense of personal identity. Proper leadership measures by the people
surrounding him can be taken in order to deal with such negative impact. Providing the child

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with a sense of self identity by pointing out his/her areas of strength and inspiring him/her in
every step can be immensely helpful in such cases.
Sense of belonging
Since the abused victims are below the age group of 18, they are too immature to
understand and process the abuse. Most of the times the abused children think that they might
have done something wrong for which they were punished. As a result of this they start hiding
their problems from others and start isolating themselves. It is very important to make them
understand that they did not do anything wrong and the perpetuator is to be punished. Parents
and other people around them are needed to include them in dynamic activities that will make
them feel loved.
Why is it worth solving this problem?
Child abuse has profound impacts. Various research and surveys conducted on child
abuse and neglect shows that child abuse gives rise to various health problems and severe mental
disorders in both the victims as well as their families. In addition to this, the concept of child
abuse often gives rise to complicated questions comprising of the law enforcements, public and
judicial services and other non-profit organizations. A quantitative analysis proved that $258
million are spent by the nation every day in regards to child abuse issues. There are various
beneficial reasons of solving this problem as the national economy will face a subsequent rise.
Furthermore, these are the future generation. By helping them to get treated the way they deserve
we will be helping our future generation in terms of stabilization.

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Conclusions
To conclude, child abuse is one of the most menacing community challenges which needs
to be developed by incorporating suitable innovative ideas as discussed throughout the article.
Apt measures like counseling can help the victims to gain self-awareness along with a
subsequent development of their emotional framework. In addition to that, psychotherapy,
integrative therapy, psychotherapeutic interventions are some of the innovative ideas that can be
incorporated in order to help the victims deal with the impacts.