Week Five: Abuse

From this week’s reading I found the section on abuse thought provoking.  Cultural, parental and child factors are what contributes to child abuse.  Cultural factors are a broad category for the likelihood of an individual abusing a child. In other words, children in the United States are more likely to be abused than children in Asian countries. The textbook states that many European and Asian countries have laws protecting children from physical punishment, whereas in the United States parents are allowed to spank their children as a form of punishment. The way a parent rears their children is dependent on sociocultural values. Parental factors are the second contributor of child abuse. Parents who were abused themselves as children are more likely to abuse their own child later on in life, to be exact, about one-third of abused parents abuse their own children (Kail & Cavavaugh, 2010). In addition, parent who are lacking in effective parenting techniques often abuse their children because there is often inconsistent discipline and the parent usually has unrealistic expectations of the child. The third factor is the abused children themselves. Children who are at the infant and preschooler age are more likely to be abused because they cannot control their behavior that causes the parent to abuse them.  The example the textbook used was the classic example of shaken baby syndrome, where the parent shakes the baby to death to stop the baby from crying. Furthermore, children who are often ill become targets of abuse because of the added stress  it brings to the parents.

I can speak from personal experience that all three factors contribute to child abuse. Before I was adopted, I grew up in foster care where I witnessed many children enter the same system I was in. A majority of children who enter the foster care system were victims of abuse and neglect. Many were from poverty stricken and dysfunctional families. The worst case of abuse I saw a baby who was neglected. When the baby entered the same home I was in, the back of her head was completely flat. She was born to crack addicted mother who ignored her and left her lying flat on her back while she was in her care, and this is what cause her skull to be deformed. Luckily she entered foster and found a loving foster home.

I would like to learn more about studies on resiliency. I specifically want to know how an individual can break his or her family’s dysfunction. I think that if everyone could learn how to do this the world would be a much better place and maybe it just might lower the odds of a child being abuse.