It is startling when I knew that violence causes more deaths of children than do any other specific diseases. (Berger, 2012) Except for the injuries, child maltreatment is another reason that causes child deaths. Child maltreatment, including child abuse and child neglect, affects children’s multifaceted developments, namely, physical development, social and emotional development, and cognitive development, the two latter ones of which are more devastatingly influenced in children’s future life.
I still remember the boy in my neighbour named Hua, 5 years old, who underwent the suffering of child neglect in his early childhood. Both of his parents were businessmen. They worked in the same company and were quite successful in their field. Actually they lived in a wealthy life. However, in order to fulfil their own career aspiration, they were busy working and travelling around the world, leaving their child, Hua, to a nanny and paying little attention to Hua’s physical and psychological growth. All that the nanny could do was to ensure that Hua could have every meal on time; however, she could not help much on his social and emotional needs. When I met him in the leisure area for our community, I saw him play alone without interactions with his peers, and talk little and even be silent if verbal communication was not needed; I seldom saw him laugh and even smile. Instead, he cried a lot when he came across some problems. Once I saw him with his parents in the street, Hua refusing to hold his parents’ hand and parents having no idea about how to deal with this situation. I think this probably results from lack of time and communication with his parents and being neglected. I don’t think the parents would realise what their neglect toward their child brought him until a call from preschool reached them. I heard that Hua didn’t get along well with his peers and had a fight with one of his peers, resulting from toys being grabbed by his peer and resulting in this peer being hit hard with the toy and bit by Hua. With the help of the teachers and the parenting consultant from the preschool, Hua’s parents were aware that their absence in interactions with their child and their neglect toward their child had a negative impact on the child’s social and emotional development and even cognitive development. From then on, I saw the parents spend more time playing with Hua in the leisure area and heard that Hua’s teachers spoke well of Hua’s interactions at school. With the support of parents and teachers, Hua became more outgoing, confident in communicating with others, and showed his happy face more often.
Child maltreatment in developed and developing nations results from multifaceted reasons, but mainly from family financial stress. It is surprising to find that US, which is ranked first in gross domestic product globally, is ranked "25th of 27 among developed nations based on the rate of child deaths from abuse and neglect”. The statistics shows that "in 2011, 676,569 children in US were determined to be victims of abuse or neglect”, 78% of which were victims of neglect and 18% of which were victims of physical abuse. It is estimated that there are "1,570 child fatality victims per year due to maltreatment in the U.S.”. (First Star, 2013) I can not imagine the statistics of child maltreatment in other developing countries. As studied, child maltreatment affects children "now and later”, physically, psychologically, behaviourally and economically. (CDC, 2014)
Physically, it can cause improper formation and function of the brain, leading to negative long-term impacts on cognitive, language, and socio-emotional development, and mental and physical health of the child. Psychologically, maltreatment may "result in anxiety and may make victims more vulnerable to problems such as post-traumatic stress disorder, conduct disorder, and learning, attention, and memory difficulties”. Behaviourally, children who are maltreated in early childhood are more likely to have such behaviours as smoking, alcohol abuse and drug abuse, etc. in adulthood. What’s more, it is hard to build up a healthy relationship and maintain it between people who experience maltreatment in childhood. Economically, "the estimated average lifetime cost per victim of nonfatal child maltreatment is $210,012 dollars (in 2010), including childhood health care costs, adult medical costs, productivity losses, child welfare costs, criminal justice costs and special education costs, etc.. (CDC, 2014)
“The causes of child maltreatment are multifaceted, involving not only the parents but also the neighbours, the teachers, the medical community, the culture, and even the maltreated children themselves.” (Berger, 2012, p. 247) Therefore, it is everyone’s responsibility to take measures to prevent child maltreatment.
In US, some effectives programs are offered to help parents and their parenting skills.
- visits by nurses to parents and children in their homes to provide support, education, and information;
- parent education, usually delivered in groups, to improve child-rearing skills, increase knowledge of child development, and encourage positive child management strategies; and
- multi-component interventions, which typically include support and education of parents, pre-school education, and child care. (Retrieved from WHO http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs150/en/)
Children are our hope. Children are the future of our society. I, hereby, advocate for children, hoping for the reduction of child maltreatment.
Reference:
Berger, K. S. (2012). The developing person through childhood (6th ed.). New York, NY: Worth Publishers. Chapter 8, "Early Childhood: Biosocial Development”.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). (2014). Child Maltreatment: Consequences. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/childmaltreatment/consequences.html
First Star. (2013). Child Abuse and Neglect Statistics. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.firststar.org/library/national-statistics.aspx
World Health Organization (WHO). (2014). Child maltreatment. Retrieved March 25th, 2014 from http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs150/en/
Hi Xiaowan, Your post is very interesting and the public need to be aware of how the young and innocent are being mistreated at the hands of people that they rely on to nurture and care for them. Within the past 2 or three years I have seen on the news here in Michigan- how very young children from the ages of 3 months to 3 or 4 years old have been murdered by the hands of their parents or mother's boyfriend. This is so sad and you wonder what happened to make a grown person hurt or kill a child? Especially a child that cannot defend itself, and children that are maltreated, when they grow up they mistreat their own off springs (this is learned behavior). I feel that there's not enough being done to help the innocent and it’s a worldwide epidemic, and I, along with you, will advocate for children hoping for the reduction of child maltreatment and for new parents to receive some type of parenting classes on child abuse before leaving the hospital with their newborns. You did a great job on your post.
回复删除Thank you for calling attention to this heartbreaking subject, Xiaowan. It makes me so sick when I hear of people mistreating children. Our children are so innocent and need adults who will care for them. I can only imagine the harm it does to a child developmentally when the adults they've put their trust in hurt and neglect them. I am glad that the parents of the little boy you knew were able to learn from their mistakes and make better choices concerning their son. I like that there are several programs established that have made a difference in the maltreatment of children. I hope rapid progress continues to be made, because even one child hurt is too many.
回复删除Hi Xiaowan,
回复删除Thanks for the great post! I am of the firm belief that if a person does not want to have children they do not have to have them. It angers me that people are so irresponsible when it comes to sex and then when children are conceived and brought into this world they are mistreat. Do parents not understand the emotional and mental damage they cause to children with their pride and selfishness? My heart hurts for these children. But to hear the testimony of Hua's victory over maltreatment is encouraging. I am thankful that his parents were willing to be honest with themselves about the state of their son and made strides to facilitate a healthier family environment for his sake. I am sure that the parents have also benefitted from this change.
I love community programs available to assist families who need additional support. Are the programs government funded or privately funded. It would be of great benefit to our world if more churches would get more involved in assisting families.
Thank you for sharing this!
Stephanie