Child Abuse Article

When a parent or caregiver injures, emotionally harms, or kills a child, this is known as child abuse. Physical
abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse are just some of the forms of child abuse that a parent
or individual can engage in (Cicchetti et al. 252). When a parent or caregiver is involved in the abuse of his
or her child, the abused child suffers emotionally and may become depressed. As a result, child abuse is a
serious problem that can lead to children abusing drugs, fleeing their homes, or even becoming violent as a
result of their experiences. Child abuse happens all over the world, but people fear to talk about it making it
be kept hidden. Some people cannot report to the authority because they feel that it is not their concern and
this makes the abused child continue suffering (Zellman and Robert 27). Accordingly, this paper outlines
various issues surrounding child abuse, earlier strategies that have been on pace to solve the problem and
presents satisfactory solutions to the problem.
Some television programs on child abuse do not speak on the real issues surrounding child abuse hence
making it a clear evidence that even the media know that child abuse is real. Furthermore, what children say
may give a good idea of what they are experiencing. Evidently, 40 million children who are below the age of
15 are subjected to child abuse in the world. In the United States, over 20, 000 children have been killed in
their homes in the last one decade hence a need for effective interventions.
The Problem of Child Abuse and Surrounding Issues
Background Information
In the United States, medical providers have authorized reporters of child abuse. Where there is suspected
child abuse, the EM provider is obliged by law to report. Nevertheless, he/she cannot be legally responsible
for reporting in good faith if the suspicion is not proven, but he/she can be held legally responsible if they do
not report suspected child abuse when there is reasonable suspicion of such (Vos 8). Since child abuse
reporting laws differ in countries, it is the responsibility of the general practitioner to know the law in his or
her country. The Emergency provider is expected to approach any suspected victim, and the first step he/she
should take is administering appropriate medical care for the patient. Other steps may include a thorough
history and physical examination, consulting a social worker or child abuse pediatrician and reporting the
matter to the Child Protective Service Agencies.
Child abuse is a difficult diagnosis to manage in the emergency department. To manage it, the problem
requires local and institutional resources such as social workers, child abuse physicians, and authorities to be
consulted early in the evaluation if it is possible. Most child abuse occurs within the families where there is
poverty, parents who are teenagers, parents who abuse drugs and spouses that abuse each other.
Causes
There are three causes of child abuse, and these include parental causes, ecological causes, and child
problems. Parental causes involve young parents and sometimes teenagers who lack the experience of taking
care of children and therefore end up neglecting a child. This occurs because young or teenage parents never
learned the skills for good parenting leading them to encounter challenges when bringing up their children
(Cicchetti 13). Parents who were abused when they were young by their parents are also likely to abuse their
children. Some parents who never went to school may not know how to differentiate between discipline and
child abuse. Ignorance may also lead to a parent or a caregiver abusing his/her child thinking that he/she is
teaching him the right thing. Children who end up living with families where there is domestic violence end
up becoming victims themselves because a good number of males who abuse their female partners or wives
end up abusing their children.
An ecological factor is also a cause of child abuse. It involves abusing of drugs and alcohol by parents.
Parents who abuse drugs are likely to be unrealistic in their behavior, which leads to abuse of children.
Poverty also plays a significant role in the abuse of children since parents face problems such as financial
difficulties making them not possible to provide basic needs for their children. When a parent or a caregiver
faces the financial problem, and he /she does not know what to do next and may end abusing his child
(Cicchetti 19). Single parents who lack social support or parents who have problems in their marriages may
also involve themselves in child abuse. Abusive parents believe their children are annoying hence, cannot
stop abusing them.
Besides, child problems also cause child abuse. Caring for a child with special needs is challenging and
therefore needs family and community support. In a situation where a parent or caregiver lacks support from
the community and the family, he/she may have problems in bringing up the child. Such children, in turn,
undergo different forms of difficulties hence experience abuse from lack of adequate food and social support.
Effects of Child Abuse
Child abuse has several varying effects depending on the type of child abuse. These effects are either
emotional, physical or psychological (Cicchetti et al. 252). Physical effects include signs such as wounds,
burns, or fracture that occur after physical abuse. On the other hand, emotional and or psychological entail
being aggressive, fear to talk to their parents, fear to go home and sometimes a child isolates himself from the
public (Cicchetti et al. 252). The child may be violent in school, and he/she may fear to express his/her
feelings to others. Child abuse also may make a child to be stressed and suffer from depression at a young
age hence interfering with his/her physical health.
Solutions to Child Abuse
There exist various solutions to the problem. First, there is a need to strengthen economic support to families
by providing employment opportunities to employ parents hence strengthening household financial security
(Alvy 11). Strengthening economic support will minimize the rate of poverty hence making the parents be
able to meet the needs of their children. Strengthening economic support will create family-friendly work
policies hence preventing child abuse (Eckenrode et al. 1389).
The second should entail educating and creating awareness about issues surrounding child abuse and the need
to take adequate care of children. People should be educated on the dangers of child abuse as well as how
they affect their children. There is also need to initiate mentoring programs in communities to make the
society aware of the dangers of child abuse. Educating the public will help parents and caregivers to be aware
of its effects and stop abusing their children.
Furthermore, children should be made aware of their rights. When children are taught their rights, they are
not likely to think that child abuse is their fault. A child who knows his or her rights in most cases may not be
a victim of child abuse since he/she will report the matter to the authorities if his or her caregiver tends to
abuse him/her. Besides, another solution should entail supporting child-abuse prevention programs. The
government and the public have to support prevention programs put in place to safeguard children against
child abuse. To stop child abuse the government has to invest heavily in programs that have been proven to
stop child abuse before it occurs, this programs may include family counseling and a home visit by nurses
who provide assistance for new born and their parents (Eckenrode et al. 1385).
Legislation is one of the solutions put in place earlier to solve the problem of child abuse many years ago.
Although legislation has been an efficient method, it had its shortcomings hence not a useful method to
resolve this problem since a good number of children have been reported dead due to child abuse. The
method has been challenging since children and neighbors fear to report the matter of child abuse to the
authorities. Due to fear children keep quiet about this issues and continue being mistreated by their parents
due to lack of knowledge by their parents who tend to think that they are teaching them the right thing.
As such, solutions that involve high level of participations and builds on the strength of the family produces
better results compared to programs that focus mainly on keeping the family unit intact without addressing
the causes of the problem (Alvy 21). Teaching and training programs are, therefore, better methods compared
to other solutions. Providing parents with valuable information about child development is effective since
parents and caregiver are trained on how to handle children when they make mistakes and how to solve
family conflicts peacefully. Besides teaching and training of parents, home visitation programs are also
important. The government should initiate programs that will involve a regular visit by a health professional
to the homes and families that may need support with childcare or where there is suspected child abuse. This
issue can be solved since a health practitioner can involve himself in programs such as guiding and
counseling of the parents and their children and training the parents on how to control their anger to
minimize the rate of child abuse.
Conclusion
In conclusion, child abuse is a universal problem affecting the young population from birth to 18 years of
age. There are three leading causes of child abuse, which are parental causes, ecological causes, and child
problems. Based on the causes many effects can be observed in the child, which affect the child emotionally,
physically, and their social development. Since the family is essential for love and care for the child, it is
significant to bring their attention and highlight the causes and effects of child abuse, so they can play a
major role in stopping the issue. Therefore, an appropriate consciousness of the community plays a vital role
in preventing this problem from escalating.

Works cited
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Cicchetti, Dante, et al. “The differential impacts of early physical and sexual abuse and internalizing
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Cicchetti, Dante. Child maltreatment: Theory and research on the causes and consequences of child abuse
and neglect. Cambridge University Press, 1989.
Eckenrode, John, et al. “Preventing child abuse and neglect with a program of nurse home visitation: The
limiting effects of domestic violence.” Jama 284.11 (2000): 1385-1391.
Vos, Michelle L. “Child Abuse Reporting: When Given the Option, Do Youth Choose to Report?.” (2014).
Zellman, Gail L., and Robert M. Bell. The Role of Professional Background, Case Characteristics, and
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