Effects of Child Abuse
on Children: Abuse in General
Children
suffering abuse develop a range of maladaptive,
anti-social and self-destructive behaviors and
thoughts by trying to cope with the abuse - by trying
to understand the situation and why the abuse is
happening.
Think of it like this: a person is robbed and beaten
while walking down the street at night. In trying to
deal with the situation, the person thinks, "I
shouldn't have walked down that street," or "I
shouldn't have been there at that time of night," or
"I should have walked with more confidence," or "I
shouldn't have made eye contact," or "I should have
given in quicker," or "I should have fought back," or
any number of other ideas. The point is the person
feels a sense of control over the situation if they
can blame themselves or something they did for the
attack. Instead of the world being a dangerous place
where violence occurs at random, the world becomes a
safe place within certain behavioral parameters.
Children experience the same kinds of thoughts when
they suffer abuse, except they are much more immature
and often make much less sense
because
the violence is occurring in their own family, and
nothing makes sense in that situation.
And the abuse suffered by children occurs much more
frequently. If the adult in the above example is
attacked and mugged every week despite changing their
behavior each time, it won't be long before the person
starts coming up with bizarre explanations for the
violence and becomes afraid to leave the house
entirely. If the person has a chance to talk with the
attacker after every attack (like in cartoons where
the rabbit asks the fox "why did you attack me?" and
the fox comes up with a different silly reason each
time or like in child abuse where the victim and the
perpetrator interact constantly) the person will be
sent through a psychological maze of smoke and mirrors
leading to any number of bizarre ideas about how to
avoid the attack next week. By coming up with ideas
about what they did to cause the abuse and what they
can do differently to avoid the abuse,
children
also develop a range of maladaptive behaviors which
can become pathological problems.
In addition to distorting children's thoughts, abuse
also forces children into a position of having to 'hide
the family secret'.
This prevents children from having real relationships
and has life-long effects. And because our ability to
form healthy social relationships is learned, abused
children are deprived of many skills necessary to
navigate the social world. Their entire concept of a
relationship is distorted. This leads to problematic
relationships in life and even on the job.
Another disturbing aspect of abuse is the experiential
restraint it puts on children. If a
child
fears doing anything new
because of the chance that it will lead to a violent
attack or because an abusive parent keeps extremely
tight control over them, the child will lose his or
her sense of curiosity and wonder at the world and
will stop trying new things and exercising his or her
mind. That child will never achieve his or her
intellectual potential.
Another aspect of abuse which cannot be ignored is the
physical stress
it puts on a child. Multiple exposures to violence and
trauma cause what's known as autonomic and endocrine
hyper-arousal. Basically
it means
the victim gets stressed out.
When a person experiences this hyper-arousal over and
over again,
there
are permanent physiological changes.
These changes can be seen as over-reactions to
stimuli, as in being easily startled especially by
things that remind the victim of the original event;
generally being emotionally numb; craving high-risk,
stimulating, or dangerous experiences or self-injury;
difficulties in attention and concentration;
cardiovascular problems; and immune suppression which
leads to a higher risk for colds and more severe
illnesses.3
There is a long list of outcomes for children
experiencing abuse. They range from mild, almost
unnoticeable personality effects to full-blown
breakdowns in healthy functioning. The point is that
abuse increases a child's risk of developing a number
of health and psychological problems.
Effects of child abuse - Summary
Academic difficulties; Aggressive behavior; Alcohol
and/or other drug abuse; Anxiety; Attention problems;
Bad dreams; Bed wetting; Behavior problems; Chronic
pain; Compulsive sexual behaviors; Concentration
problems; Dangerous behavior such as speeding;
Dehydration; Depression; Dissociative states; Eating
disorders; Failure to thrive; Fear or shyness; Fear of
certain adults or places; Frequent injuries; Insomnia;
Learning problems; Lying; Malnutrition;
Oppositionality; Panic attacks; Physical symptoms such
as headaches and stomach aches; Repeated self-injury;
Risky sexual behaviors; Running away; Self neglect;
Separation anxiety; Sexual dysfunction; Sleep
disorders; Social withdrawal; Stealing; Stuttering;
Substance abuse; Suicide attempts; Thumb-sucking or
any age-inappropriate behavior; Truancy.
Children have different levels of resiliency or
hardiness and different personality attributes, so
different children respond differently to similarly
abusive situations.
That's why the lists of warning signs above seems so
general. None of the symptoms above is diagnostic of
child abuse - i.e., the presence of any of the signs
above does not prove that abuse has occurred. Also, a
child may endure abuse without developing any of the
symptoms above. Abuse simply increases the risk for
all of the symptoms. Basically, children are supposed
to learn everything they need to thrive in this world
from their caretakers. Abusive parents provide the
opposite of what children need. Instead of teaching
and nurturing growth, they distort and destroy.
Effects of Child Abuse on Children: Sexual Abuse
The strongest indicators that a child has been sexually abused are inappropriate knowledge about sex, inappropriate sexual interest, and sexual acting out.
The effects of abuse result from the abuse itself, from the family's response to the situation, and from the stigmatization that accompanies abuse. The symptoms can include post-traumatic symptoms, precocious sexualization, depression, anxiety, guilt, fear, sexual dysfunction, dissociative symptoms, eating disorders, substance abuse, prostitution, regressive behaviors such as a return to thumb-sucking or bed-wetting, runaway behavior, and academic and behavior problems.
Factors that influence the outcomes in cases of childhood sexual abuse include the age of the victim, the frequency and extent of the abuse, the relationship of the victim to the abuser (incest has the worst outcomes), the use of force, the presence of severe injury, and the number of different perpetrators.
The response of the victim's family has a tremendous effect on the outcome. Supportive responses from the victims family and friends can go far to lessen the impact of the abuse while negative responses (seen commonly in cases of incest where one parent tries to protect the other parent) will compound the damage done.
["Child Abuse: An
Overview" was written by C. J. Newton, MA, Learning
Specialist and published in the Find
Counseling.com (formerly TherapistFinder.net) Mental
Health Journal in April, 2001.
http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/child-abuse/child-abuse-effects.html
http://www.findcounseling.com/journal/child-abuse/sexual-abuse-effects.html]