Psychological Effects Of Child Abuse

Child abuse is the ill-treatment done to a child, which may either be intentional or unintentional in nature. Whether the abuse is physical, emotional, sexual, or in the form of neglect, the scars are surely deep and long lasting. It is crucial to address child abuse on time, because such an act can have irreversible effects on the victim. If the child is subjected to continuous harassment, physically, mentally or emotionally, he/she might develop some serious psychological problems, apart from health problems.

 

The after-effects of child abuse depend on various factors, such as the severity and frequency of the abuse, age of the child, child’s relationship with the abuser, availability of emotional support and the child’s capacity to cope up with the trauma. Though the abused child recuperates from the physical injuries in sometime, the scars caused emotionally and psychologically cannot be healed easily. In the following lines, we have provided some major causes and long term psychological effects of child abuse.

 

Psychological Effects Of Child Abuse 

Many children are abused by their parents, because the parents themselves had a horrifying childhood. They might have been treated very badly when they were children. During their childhood, they might have been taught with harsh methods of discipline that can lead to violence. Such a situation leaves unhealed scars in the minds of the parents, which drives them to repeat the same things that were done to them and they end up in abusing their own children as well. In cases when the parents themselves did not have a pleasant childhood, chances of abusing their own child, either physically or emotionally, cannot be ruled out.

 

Poverty is one of the major causes of child abuse. This is predominantly seen in developing as well as under-developed countries, wherein many parents in poor families have more children than they can handle. In such cases, the parents are largely illiterate and unaware of the possible serious consequences that their child might face, which contributes to child abuse.

Be it a poor family or a financially well-settled one, if parents are in the stranglehold of extreme stress, it might reflect in their attitude towards their children as well. Cases of negligence by the parents, due to their busy and extremely stressful life, are categorized into emotional child abuse, which might or might not be intentional in nature.