3. Child Abuse:
An unexpected form of
mistreatment of a child
whereby the survival, sa-
fety, self-esteem, growth,
and development of the
child are endangered.
4. Child Discipline:
An expected parental resp-
onse to specific misbehavi-
our or failure of a child to
meet expectations.
5. Physical Child Abuse:
Non-accidental physical injury (i.e.
punching, beating, kicking, biting,
or burning) that a child sustains at
the hands of an adult.
6. Sexual Child Abuse:
Any sexual act (i.e. touching,
molestation, showing/creating
pornography, or prostitution
encouragement) with a child
performed by an adult.
7. Emotional Child Abuse:
Pattern of negative behaviour (i.e.
ignoring, rejecting, terrorizing, or
verbally abusing) by an adult that
interferes with a child’s cognitive,
emotional, psychological or social
development.
8. Neglectful Child Abuse:
Pattern of lacking or failing to provide
for a child's basic needs (i.e. adequate
food, clothing, hygiene, or supervision)
by an adult.
9. Why does the issue of
CHILD ABUSE occur and
how does it impact the
victims?
10. HYPOTHESIS
Child abuse OCCURS because the abuser:
• Was abused as a child
• Had poor childhood experiences
• Suffers from a mental disorder
• Is stressed emotionally or financially
• Is under alcohol or drug influence
• Believes child abuse is simply an act of child discipline
• Lacks parental skills
Child abuse IMPACTS its victims by:
• Disabling them physically
• Developing psychological disorders such as PTSD and a phobia of adults
• Forcing them to be socially unstable
20. Feral:
An unwanted child deserted
at a young age and raised by
animals (e.g. Oxana Malaya
the “Ukrainian Dog Girl”).
21. Isolate:
A child raised in near
isolation within a hu-
man household (e.g.
Genie from California,
1970).
22. Psychological Child Abuse
Psychological child abuse holds
a rate of negative outcome that
is 3 times higher than that of
physical or sexual child abuse.
Physical and sexual child abuse
must occur at the SAME TIME
to have the same effect that
psychological child abuse has
alone.
23. 0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
Quebecois Youth Centre: The Psychologically Abused
16%
25%
12%
Exposed to forms
of violence (e.g.
the Internet)
Rejection,
denigration,
verbal abuse
Emotional
indifference/
ignored
Threatened with
abuse and
terrorized
47%
24. Parents and Guardians
The relationship
a child has with
their parents or
guardians is the
most primary.
When this prim-
ary relationship
is full of betrayal
and mistrust, the
child and his or
her psychological
growth and dev-
elopment is imp-
acted greatly.
25. Brain Development
“ ”
The years before five
last the rest of their lives.
DECREASED volumes of grey matter.
DECREASED frontal lobe.
DECREASED hippocampus.
DECREASED corpus callosum.
INCREASED limbic system.
26. of adults reporting childhood abuse have at least
psychological disorder.
80% 1
of childhood abuse victims have more than
psychological disorders.
50% 3
28. Poor Mental Health
Child abuse victims are
times as likely to have
poor mental health outcomes
than the average person.
3
Child abuse victims are
times as likely to be unhappy
in life than the average person.
4
30. Isolation
There is a DECREASED level of social
support and an INCREASED risk of
living alone.
31. Behavioural Health Effects
Child abuse victims are times
as likely as the average person to
be associated with suicidal behav-
iour and the INCREASED likeli-
hood of smoking, substance abuse,
and physical inactivity.
5
32. Nature vs Nurture
50% of adults who abuse kids do
so because of their nature.
50%
of adults who abuse kids do so
based on their childhood
experiences or “nurture”.
33. Personal Battles
Sometimes, the child abuse perpetrator is
batting their own psychological traumas
and loses their temper, lashing out with-
out intending to.
of the perpetrators studied
claimed that they did not
intend to hurt the child.
70%
34. Other Psychological Reasoning
Lack of knowledge on how to care for
or discipline a child
Expectation of behaviour that is un-
realistic for the child’s age or ability
Financial or emotional stress
Alcohol or drug abuse
Unplanned or unwanted pregnancy
35. Child Abuse Deaths
In the United States alone, at least
children die every day as a result of child abuse.
5
80% are less than years of age.2
36. The long-term financial impact of child abuse
(including health care costs and special education
costs) add up to $124 BILLION. This is enough
money to send 1.7 MILLION children to college.
Financial Impact
62. HYPOTHESIS
Child abuse OCCURS because the perpetrator:
Was abused as a child
Had poor childhood experiences
Suffers from a mental disorder
Is stressed emotionally or financially
Is under alcohol or drug influence
Believes child abuse is simply an act of child discipline
Lacks parental skills
Child abuse IMPACTS its victims by:
Disabling them physically
Developing psychological disorders such as PTSD and a phobia of adults
Forcing them to be socially unstable
63. Nature vs Nurture
50% of adults who abuse kids do
so because of their nature.
50%
of adults who abuse kids do so
based on their childhood
experiences or “nurture”.
64. • Slide 1
• For those of you who don’t know, our names are Yumna, Nida, and Sahifa and the topic we are going to be discussing today is child abuse. This is a very sensitive topic so we would really appreciate your respect and would like to thank you in advance. Now, many people cannot differentiate between child abuse and child discipline so we will startoff my distinguishing these two ideas. Keep in mind that the definition is not exactas it does vary from culture to culture.
• Slide 3
• Child abuse is an unexpected form of mistreatment of a child whereby the survival, safety, self-esteem, growth, and development of the child areendangered. Their development includes not only physical but also social, emotional, behavioural, intellectual and so on and so forth.
• Slide 4
• Child discipline is an expected parental response to specific misbehaviour or failure of a child to meet expectations. With respect to this idea, the child is well awareof their expectations as well as the accompanying consequences unlike child abuse which is unpredictable. There arefour forms of child abuse, does anyone know what they are? [class] The four forms of child abuse arephysical, sexual, emotional, and neglectful.
• Slide 5
• Physical child abuse is any non-accidental physical injury (such as punching, beating, kicking, biting, or burning) that a child sustains at the hands of an adult. This is the most visible form of child abuse.
• Slide 6
• Sexual child abuse is any sexual act(such as touching, molestation, pornography, or prostitution) with a child performed by an adult.
• Slide 7
• Emotional child abuse is when an adult holds a pattern of negative behaviour (such as ignoring, rejecting, terrorizing, or verbally abusing) that interferes with a child’s mental development.
• Slide 8
• Neglectful child abuse which is also simply known as child neglect, is when an adult holds a pattern of lacking or failing to provide for a child’s basic needs such as adequate food, clothing, hygiene, shelter, and supervision.
• Slide 9
• Our research question is actually a two-part question because the ideas tie into one another. Why does the issue of child abuse occur and how does it impact the victims? The reason we were motivated to research the topic of child abuse is because it is an issue that has a significantimpact on society as a whole.
• The children of today arethe adults of tomorrow. Victims of child abuse grow to be emotionally, and often physically, scarred.They enter adulthood without any appropriate guidance and become involved in things like criminal activity, drug and alcohol abuse, and inappropriate sexual behaviour, amongst other things, as a wayto cope with all the pastnegativity in their lives.
• This is what has a continual downfall on our society. So really, this issue affects us all in one way or another – not just those who are poor and unfortunate. We all need to be awareof how serious it is and then help prevent is. We areall greatly impacted by the issue of child abuse whether we know it yet or not, and that is the reason why our group was interested in researching it.
• Slide 10
• For a hypothesis, we cameup with many reasons for why child abuse may occur. For example, the abuser was abused as a child or had poor childhood experiences and feels as though it is appropriate to imitate those acts.
• The abuser suffers from a mental disorder including anger management issues or is stressed financially or emotionally and lashes out without meaning to.
• The abuser is under alcohol or drug influence. Or believes that abusing a child for punishment or discipline is part of the abuser’s culture.
• The abuser lacks parental skills and doesn’t understand that it isn’t morally or legally correct to abuse a child. All of these are reasons for why we believe child abuse occurs.
• As for the impact on the victim, we hypothesize that they will suffer physically, however they will be affected psychologically a lot more. They will be burdened with mental disorders such as PTSD and will create a fear of adults or people in general. They will also be impacted by being unable to deal with society.
65. • Slide 18
• When it comes to the psychological perspective of child abuse, the two primarythings we can focus on arethe psychological impact on the victims of child abuse and the psychological reasoning behind why child abuse occurs.We can also look at psychological child abuse alone in more depth.
• Slide 19
• Statistics show that of the four forms of child abuse, emotional child abuse occurs the least yet holds the largestamount of psychological impact. Here are the statistics for the victims of child abuse. As you can see, emotional child abuse affects a mere 15 percent of child abuse victims. However, it has the greatest effecton them in terms of their psychological and mental health.
• Slide 20
• A victim of psychological child abuse can be a feral.This is an unwanted child deserted at a young ageand raised by animals. An example of a feral is Oxanna, a Ukrainian girl. She was the neglected child of alcoholic parents who spent most of her life between the ages of three and eight living and interacting with dogs. This five-year interaction left her afraid of humans and she actually exhibited dog-like behaviour. She barked, moved on all fours,and drank from a bowl. Ferals areof particular interest to psychologists because they lack basic skills and rather, develop mentally to imitate the behaviours of their animal guardian(s).
• Slide 21
• A victim of psychological child abuse can also be an isolate. This is a child raised in near isolation within a human household. The most famous isolate caseis Genie who lived most of her firstthirteen years strapped to a potty chair with little or no human contact. She experienced extreme neglect and psychological abuse. This held a negative impact on her developing brain and caused it to be significantly smaller than averagewhich ultimately led to her abnormal behaviours. I will talk more about the brains of child abuse victims in a bit.
• Slide 22
• Children who have been psychologically abused suffer from anxiety, depression, and suicidal behaviour at a rate that is three times higher than children who arephysically or sexually abused. Physical and sexual abuse have to occur at the same time to have the sameeffect as psychological abuse alone.
• Slide 23
• There was a field study done by a youth centre in Quebec in 2012.A total of 1032 children under the age of 18 were identified as victims of psychological abuse. Of these children, 47 percent were simply exposed to forms of violence whether it be through the form of the internet, video games, or domestic violence. 25 percent were victims of rejection, denigration, disapproval, or verbal abuse. 16 percent suffered from the emotional indifference of their parents or were ignored by them. And 12 percent were threatened with abuse or terrorized.
• Slide 24
• When we are young, our entire world revolves around our parents or guardians. The relationship a child has with their parents or guardians is the most primary. But when this primaryrelationship is full of betrayal, a negative set of beliefs develops and affects an individual greatly. Child abuse victims experience long-term psychological trauma throughout their entire life even in the much later years.
• Slide 25
• Have you heard the saying “the years before five lastthe rest of their lives”? This is a very true idea because the brain develops at a very fastpace during the early developmental stages of childhood. Meeting a child’s needs during these early stages creates emotional stability and security that is needed for healthy brain development. However, repeated exposure to stressful events can affectthe brain’s stress response and this is what ultimately leads to psychological disorders.
• Slide 26
• Almost 80 percent of adults reporting child abuse and neglect have at least one psychological disorder in their lifetime and nearly 50 percent have three or more psychological disorders.
• Slide 27
• Research has found that child abuse contributes to the likelihood of addictions, nightmares, eating disorders, sexual disorders, and a number of other psychological disorders. Some of these include: anxiety disorders such as phobias, personality disorders such as dissociation, and mood disorders such as major depressive disorder. These arejust a few psychological impacts. The harsh reality is that the list goes on.
• Slide 28
• To summarize,child abuse victims demonstrate poor long-term mental health. They are almost three times as likely to have poor mental health outcomes and four times more likely to be unhappy in life than the averageperson.
• Slide 29
• Child abuse victims demonstrate negative relationships. There is higher prevalence of broken relationships and lower rate of marriage.
• Slide30
• Child abuse victims demonstrate isolation and social disconnection. There is a decreased level of social support and an increased risk of living alone.
• Slide 31
• Finally, child abuse victims demonstrate behavioural health effects. They arealmost five times as likely as the average person to be associated with suicidal behaviour and the increased likelihood of smoking, substance abuse, and physical inactivity. The long-term effects and psychological scars child abuse victims have can interfere with day-to-day functioning. However, it is possible to live a full and satisfactorylife.So what is the psychological reasoning behind why child abuse occurs?
• Slide 32
• Well this can be analyzed and answered with the nature vs nurture concept. Some parents areborn with the natural tendency to abuse others while others are conditioned to do so based on their own experiences with abuse. This concept is divided almost equally amongst the perpetrators of child abuse. Almost 50 percent of parents who abuse their children were abused when they were children while the other 50 percent were born with psychological disadvantages (such as schizophrenia which is one of the leading genetic causes) that forced them to behave the way they do.
• Slide 33
• Another psychological reason behind why child abuse occurs is because the perpetrator is battling their own psychological trauma and often loses their temper, lashing out without intending to. 70% of perpetrators claim that they do not intend to hurt the child and that in fact, they don’t even notice.
• Slide 34
• Other psychological reasoning for why child abuse occurs is because the perpetrator does not know how to carefor or discipline a child, they expect behaviour that is unrealistic for a child’s ageor ability, they are stressed financially or emotionally, or they abuse alcohol or other drugs as their own coping method and this also results in losing control and abusing their child. In many cases, child abuse occurs as a result of an unplanned pregnancy.
• Slide 35
• In the United States alone, at least five children die every day as a result of child abuse. More than 80% areless than two years of age.
• Slide 36
• And those who survive, they areimpacted not only in terms of their mental health but also in terms of their financial stability. In 2008 alone, the long-term financial impact of child abuse and neglect (including health carecosts and special education costs) added up to 124 billion dollars. This is enough money to send 1.7 million children to college or university. If this factdoesn’t get you thinking about how much child abuse victims suffer,I don’t know what will. Thank you for listening.
