Child Abuse Essay, Research Paper

Child Abuse

“Trust unto Jehovah with all thy heart,

And unto thine own understanding lean not.

In all thy ways know thou Him,

And He doth make straight thy paths.”

(Proverbs 3:5,6, YLTHB)

The statistics on physical child abuse are alarming. Of the estimated hundreds of thousands of children battered each year by a parent or close relative, thousands die. For those who survive, the emotional trauma remains long after the external bruises have healed. Communities and the courts recognize that these emotional “hidden bruises” can be treated. Children who have been abused may display a poor self-image, Inability to depend on, trust or love others, Aggressive and disruptive?sometimes illegal?behavior; Passive and withdrawn behavior; fear of entering into new relationships or activities, School failure, Serious drug and alcohol abuse. The child and adolescent psychiatrist is able to treat the “whole child”?medical as well as psychological or

emotional problems that have occurred as a result of the abuse. The family can be helped to learn new ways of support and communicating with one another. Through treatment, the abused child begins to regain a sense of self-confidence and trust. Child abuse is a matter of degree: the degree to which a parent uses inap-propriate or excessive control strategies with a child and/or fails to provide standards of care giving. In fact, abusive parents often do not know they are abusive. Our culture has, for generations, used corporal punishment as a means of controlling child behavior. Some parents think society places no restraint on such techniques. Many may recall the old saying, “spare the rod and spoil the child.” It is not always clear what the limits are in efforts to get a child to behave. The best way to stop the child abuse and stop the abusive parents from abusing their children is by forming a non-profit organization working in cooperation with U.S. Dept. of Welfare , a resource for children and families to report a child abuse and to search for the abusive parents and put a penalty on them. These type of organizations have worked considerably good in the other fields and I am sure that this solu-tion will work out fairly well. In this Article ” The goal of NCMEC,” The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children states that

“The goals of the NCMEC:

A private, non-profit organization working in cooperation with

the U.S. Department of Justice, NCMEC is a vital resource for

families and America?s 17,000 law enforcement agencies in

the search for missing children and the quest for child

protection.”

In 1986, six youth and adult survivors of child abuse and neglect formed what has become a

nation-wide movement, the National Child Rights Alliance, which is the only national organization

directed entirely by youth and adult survivors of abuse and neglect. (Non-abused supporters are

important to our work as well.) This is the Same Kind of Organization which is working for child abuse pre

vention and is going very well.

Parents can help prevent abuse if they monitor their own behavior by checking to see the effect stress has on them. If you see you are losing patience easily and that it is interfering with proper supervision of your child or children, you should search out professional help and counseling. Parenting abilities can be seri-ously challenged by personal stress-related problems. Professional assistance from psychologists and other trained counselors could prevent child abuse.

Remember, child abuse is not restricted to violent behavior and the long-term effects of child abuse and poorparenting can last a lifetime.

November 19, 1996