Affects of Child Abuse

Children who are physically or psychologically abused, will act more

violently than those who are not abused. It does not matter, what kind of abuse

they are subjected to, it will still have an effect on the child. They will think that

what they saw or heard is normal because they were not taught anything else.

The research I have done, supports my topic on all kinds of levels.

George, T. I. (1999). Children’s Health Vol. 1, New Hampshire Salem Press Inc.

In this book, the author researched that the children who are raised in

abusive homes, tend to have more criminal delinquency, risky, and violent

behavior, and suicide attempts, than other children. This right here backs up the

thesis statement that children who are abused as a child, will end up having a

violent behavior. The author also states that abuse has different effect on boys

and girls. Boys become violent and angry that they were abused, and tend to act

out more. Girls on the other hand, tend to keep t themselves, and withdraw

themselves from friends and family around them. Both boys and girls have these

sort of reactions because they are hurt and embarrassed. Boys are the ones that

usually have a high risk of abusing their children, because they are violent and

let their anger out easily. They have a hard time of controlling their anger at

times. She also says that children who are abused at a young age, are more

aggressive when playing games with their peers. Some as early as two years

old. Children who are abused, form friendships with others who have been

abused. This is not healthy for the child, because hanging out with these friends

encourage more risky or violent behavior. It will give a child problems with

making friends later in life. A lot of children will not like their behavior and not

want to be friends with them, and then the child’s self-esteem will go down and

eventually they will become depressed.

Giant, C. L. Experiences with parental aggression during childhood and self- concept in adulthood: The importance of subjective perceptions. Journal of Family Violence, Vol. 18(6), 7, Dec. 2003.

In research of child maltreatment, in relation to psychological functioning,

it has shown that adults whose parents were abusive to them, turn out to be

abusive also. Parent aggression towards a child leaves most children with a

psychological disorder. As they grow older, they tend to be pushy, or have a very

short temper with people. They get in physical fights with peers, or siblings more

often than other children would. When they are older, they let their anger out on

their children. In this journal entry, it too backs up the thesis statement that

children who are abused as a child, will turn out to have very violent behavior

and be abusive towards their offspring.

Gibb, B. E. Global reports of childhood maltreatment versus recall of specific maltreatment experiences: Relationships with dysfunctional attitudes and depressive symptoms. Cognition & Emotional, Vol. 17(6), 13, November,

2003.

This article says, that studies have shown that reports of maltreated

children, are related to depression symptom levels in adults. The result of the

depressed adult is mostly due their childhood experiences. If they were abused

or thought they were abused, then they will abuse their own. One point that this

article makes, is that the parents want someone to feel the pain and hurt that

they went through and to most it seems like the natural thing to give it to their

children. Research also shows that sexually abused children grow up and just

sexually abuse their children because of their experience.

Emotional & mental health (1999) Vol. 5, Macmillan Health Encyclopedia. Macmillan Reference USA.

Many studies have shown that aggressive behavior is learned. Sometimes

it is learned through childhood. If a child is abused by the parent, then they have

learned the abusive behavior and try and act it out. If a child grows up in an

abusive home and that is all the child sees, then of course he is going to think

that