History and Extent of Child Abuse

Family violence has a very negative impact on children. Even so, it has just recently started to become recognized as an issue that needs public attention. As is the case with many issues, it has taken a while for the public to realize that family violence is a problem and needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, "the public outcry against family violence is shockingly recent. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children was formed only in 1875…and the arousal of professional concern about battered children dates only to 1962…" (Emery and Laumann-Billings 121). There now are many institutions and programs to help victims, but some of these efforts to help may actually have created more problems (Emery and Laumann-Billings 121). The places that were designed to help the abuse victims are now being bombarded with claims. Since each claim has to be investigated, precious time is often wasted on unfounded claims. Because of the wasted time, the social workers are frequently overwhelmed and may not investigate adequately or at all cases that need investigation.

                  Social Causes of Child Abuse

There are many dysfunctional families today. Children who are at the greatest risk of abuse are stepchildren, unplanned children, and children of larger families. This risk is higher when resources are insufficient for the parents to meet the family’s basic needs. When that happens, parents tend to focus first on their own biological children or the children they are closest to (Emery and Laumann-Billings 121).

 

Relationship Between Family Structure and Abuse

The family structure defines the earliest social, economic, and psychological models that people follow when they are raising their own families (Haurinm). For example, children of single-parent families are more likely than children raised in a conventional home to experience single parenthood themselves (Haurinm). The family also lays the foundation for emotional attachments and the relationships between parents and children (Haurinm). Increased behavioral problems and delinquency are likely to result from lack of supervision and less social control (Haurinm). Although common enough in conventional families, lack of social control happens most frequently in single-parent homes.

Overview of Adult Manifestations of Childhood Abuse

There are several reasons why children grow up to have emotional and behavioral problems. Exposure to family violence is associated not only with marital violence, but also with violence toward outsiders, dating violence, severe spousal abuse, suicidal behavior, and sibling violence (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). Family violence is associated with a number of factors known to place children and adults at risk of psychological problems, including poverty, troubled family environments, and genetic liability (Emery and Laumann-Billings). Children who are physically abused or are in violent homes have more emotional problems than do those in non-violent homes. Abused children often suffer from anxiety, depression, disassociation, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicidal behavior, and criminality (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). The severity of the consequences correlates strongly with the severity and frequency of the abuse (Emery and Laumann-Billings). The long-term effects of abuse may vary depending on the type of abuse (physical, sexual, or neglect) (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). For example, victims of physical abuse have immediate and delayed psychological distress disorders in addition to the obvious physical injuries. These disorders may also result in various upheavals in the child’s life caused by the abuse, such as foster care or being a runaway (Emery and Laumann-Billings).

Types of Abuse and Their Effects on Childhood Behavior

Abuse comes in many different forms. The most common forms are physical abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse. Child neglect has been found to be more psychologically harmful than physical abuse (Emery and Laumann-Billings). Neglected boys tend to have lower IQ scores than physically abused or non-abused boys (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). However, the IQ scores for girls do not show significant differences between physically abused and neglected girls (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). There are indications that abused children are delayed intellectually and academically, and that delay probably accounts for the lower IQ scores (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). Some studies also found that physically abused children have fewer social competencies (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). They seem not to be able to relate to other people very well. Also, the behavior of child witnesses of domestic violence is very similar to the behavior of abused children (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen). Studies show that abused and neglected children are often more aggressive as young children (Widom), and that physically abused children are often more non-compliant (Malinsky-Rummell and Hansen).

Corporal Punishment

Corporal punishment and abuse have similar effects on children. The main difference between them is that corporal punishment is still legal in most states. Physical abuse is often corporal punishment that gets out of hand (Strauss and Yodonis). There seems to be a very fine line between corporal punishment, which is a socially acceptable behavior, and physical abuse, which is not socially acceptable. Corporal punishment teaches children that it is acceptable to hit when they think someone "misbehaved," "did something wrong or inappropriate," or just "won’t listen to reason" (Strauss and Yodonis). In fact, the more corporal punishment a child experiences, the more aggressive that child is likely to become (Strauss and Yodonis). "Children learn to use and value violence by observing and modeling the behavior of their parents…if the violence observed is in the form of corporal punishment.…[B]ecause corporal punishment is a legal and socially acceptable behavior, the children learn to accept it"(Strauss and Yodonis). It is possible that infrequent corporal punishment of young children is relatively harmless, but it should never be used on adolescents (Strauss and Yodonis).

For adolescents, the impact of abuse is more severe than for young children. Being of an age where they can reason, physical abuse is unfathomable to them. By this age they know that abuse is wrong, whereas children may have thought that it was normal. There is a strong link between physical abuse as children and adolescents, and adolescent aggression (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Aggressiveness and violent behaviors among teens are related to abuse during childhood (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Children in residential facilities and those being treated for mental health disorders often have high rates of physical abuse (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen).

Teens who experienced violence often have more incidents of discord among friends and more legal trouble. Abused high school students have high rates of dating violence (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). People with antisocial behavior as adolescents often go on to become criminals as adults (Widom). Abused children also tend to have high rates of arrests as juveniles. One study showed that 26% of abused victims were likely to have problems with the law vs. 16.8% of non-abused adolescents (Widom). "Lack of maternal affection and supervision and paternal deviance contributed significantly to property crimes"(Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen 72).

Many abused adolescents leave home early. Unfortunately, leaving home early does not usually mean that the person is capable of caring or providing for himself. Instead of finding careers, or even jobs, most turn to the streets. "Neighborhoods with high concentrations of child maltreatment reports tend to suffer from higher rates of juvenile delinquency, drug trafficking, and violent crime" (Emery and Laumann-Billings 127).

Abused adolescents also have high rates of SED (serious emotional disorder). Children with SED are usually found in special education classes, mental health institutions, child welfare, and juvenile justice systems (Davis and Vander Stoep). The incidents of delinquency of individuals who were abused as children are between 10%-17% (Widom). These youths are generally undereducated, underemployed, and have limited social support. Approximately 5% - 9% of youths transitioning to adulthood (16–25 yrs. old) have SED (Davis and Vander Stoep). Abuse has many psychological effects on adolescents. It has been linked to masochistic and suicidal behavior in many teens (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Abused alcoholics often become dependent on alcohol at an earlier age than non-abused alcoholics do (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). The alcoholism tends to start in the teenage years for abused children, while for other alcoholics, alcoholism tends to start during the twenties. Corporal punishment also has many psychological effects. Studies show that frequent corporal punishment is linked with adult depression and hostile aggression toward others (Strauss and Yodanis). Among suicidal adults, the rate of those who had received corporal punishment is almost double the amount of those adults who did not (Strauss and Yodanis). In one study, each time corporal punishment was used on a child, it increased the level of tolerance the child would have toward violence as an adult (Strauss and Yodanis).

Gender Differences

There are gender differences in the adult manifestation of child abuse. Men and women react differently to abuse. Physically abused males tend to be more violent and aggressive than physically abused females (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). About 15.9% of abused males will probably become abusers, but only about 9% of females will (Widom). Men are more likely to become violent, whereas women are more likely to have self-destructive behavior and suicidal tendencies. "Evidence indicates that children who are victims of violence are at an increased risk for becoming violent themselves as adults" (Emery and Laumann-Billings 129). There is very little dispute that abused men are generally more violent toward their wives than non-abused men (numbers are estimated at twice the likelihood), but there is a dispute as to whether or not abused women are more likely to be victims during adulthood. While some studies say that abused women are more likely to receive abuse rather than to inflict it, at least one study found that abuse may not relate to women’s involvement in abusive relationships at all (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). One study found that for women, corporal punishment by mothers has less of an effect than corporal punishment by fathers, and that corporal punishment by fathers was significantly related to increased odds of depression, but not marital conflict. The opposite was found for men. Corporal punishment by mothers was related significantly to depression and marital conflict, and punishment by fathers was not significantly related (Strauss and Yodonis).

Spousal Punishment and Abuse

Severe marital violence is often related to witnessing marital violence during the crucial developmental years of childhood (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Marital violence has also been linked to one or both of the partners receiving corporal punishment as children or adolescents. Studies show that spouses who experienced corporal punishment frequently as adolescents had a higher rate of spousal abuse than did those who didn’t experience corporal punishment (Strauss and Yodonis). "A study of 96 couples…found that 36.6% of those adults who had experienced a high degree of parental punishment (corporal) reported assaulting a spouse, compared to 14.5% of those who had not experienced parental (corporal) punishment"(Strauss and Yodonis). The more corporal punishment used earlier in life, the higher the likelihood of assaulting a spouse later in life (Strauss and Yodonis). Studies found that experiencing corporal punishment as a child actually doubled the likelihood of marital abuse (Strauss and Yodonis). "Corporal punishment is associated with subsequent violence and antisocial behavior" (Strauss and Yodonis) but in the eyes of the law is not usually considered spousal abuse. A good example of corporal punishment being an acceptable behavior was a case in New Hampshire. "A judge there accepted a plea bargain from a man who had stabbed his wife. The judge then admonished the man by telling him that he should have slapped her instead" (Strauss and Yodonis). Research shows that the principle behind corporal punishment, that it is acceptable to hit a partner rather than to resolve a conflict verbally, carries on into adulthood. Adults who received corporal punishment as a form of correction rarely learn how to resolve issues nonviolently. Therefore, as adults they will have little skill at managing conflicts (Strauss and Yodonis). At one time or another, it is inevitable that the spouse will "misbehave" or "refuse listen to reason," sparking an incident of corporal punishment (Strauss and Yodonis).

There are several links between corporal punishment and adolescent and marital violence. Among them are depression, an approval of violence, and a lack of conflict-resolution skills (Strauss and Yodonis). Victims of family violence share some common characteristics, such as poor health, both physically and mentally, behavioral deviations, and difficult temperaments or personality features (Emery and Laumann-Billings). Researchers found indications of a relationship between childhood physical abuse and negative feelings in interpersonal relationships in adulthood (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Physically abused females have a high likelihood to be anxious, hostile, have "paranoid-ideation," "psychoticism," depression, phobic anxiety, and "somatization" (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Studies focusing specifically on domestic violence have observed elevated levels of depressive symptoms among abusers. Forty-five percent of domestically violent males are depressed, and only 20% of domestically violent males are not (Strauss and Yodonis). The rates of abuse among depressed outpatients and many schizophrenics are extremely high (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). Physical abuse and parental conflict accounted for 44% of self-destructive acts during one study (Malinosky-Rummell and Hansen). New research suggests that depression may actually be linked with aggression, generally in the form of uncontrolled violent outbursts against others (Strauss and Yodonis). Abuse victims are not the only ones to suffer from these problems. Fairly often, adults who witnessed marital abuse as children were more tolerant toward violence and abuse (Widom). In addition, women who witnessed violence were likely to be depressed and often had more cases of marital conflict (Strauss and Yodonis).

 

Violence and Socioeconomic Status

Socioeconomic status seems to be indirectly related to the probability of spousal assault (Strauss and Yodonis). Abusers tend to be more aggressive, anxious, defensive, and less succoring than non-abusers (Emery and Laumann-Billings). For men, there is an indirect relationship between socioeconomic status and marital violence (Strauss and Yodonis). For women, there is an indirect relationship between socioeconomic status and the probability of assaulting her husband because of her tolerance or propensity of violence (Strauss and Yodonis). Older couples tend not to have as many conflicts as younger couples since they are generally better set financially and are usually well established in a career. Another factor is job stress, which is often taken out on the partner in any relationship. Younger couples generally do not know how to deal with it. Fortunately, social couples tend to experience less spousal abuse than less social couples. The lower rate of spousal abuse stems from both enhanced communication skills and a fear of notoriety.

Living Together, Marriage, and Child Abuse