Essay Example on How Family Violence Is Related to Child Abuse and Maltreatment

The ideology of having both parents around is not a guarantee of peaceful coexistence and security to a child. Romantic relationships get faced with conflicts and differences and if not appropriately addresses could result in violence (Souza, 2017). Family violence is in many instances presented by either both parents fighting or one parent beating the other. These occurrences of violent attacks by the parents come with physical, psychological and economic consequences. In the event of violence in the family, the child is affected psychologically and in some instances physically.

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Child abuse and maltreatment is the physical or psychological exposure of a child below 18 years to unfavorable conditions and circumstances relative to their age and developmental stages. Family violence has been a rampant and very negative aspect to the general growth of the child. This domestic violence can be as a result of parents who abuse drugs and other substances or parents with mental illnesses or problematic personality traits (Burlew& Kathleen, 2013). When these parents are fighting or physically struggling to hurt each other, the child might intervene to separate them or defend the parents who get subdued and in the process get hurt themselves. This occurrence will present a case of physical abuse to the child. The child could also subject to psychological maltreatment if they witness the acts of battery and violence between their parents and this may make them stressed out, know that this violence is happening in their home. The child could even develop hatred towards either or both their parents for inflicting pain on each other and more so to the child.

In some states, Georgia for instance, any act of violence committed at the presence of a child below 18 years is considered to have committed an offense of family battery. In Idaho State, the penalty of domestic violence in the presence of a child attracts a double sentence. The child who is pre-exposed to family violence will live knowing it is the only way to solve family disputes and they may end up using the same methods when they grow up to be family people. This intergenerational transmission could affect their children and the generations henceforth, if not fixed at a tender developing stage.

Describe and explain abandonment and neglect

The federal-state defines child abandon as any current act, or failure to act on the side of a parent that could result to death, sexual abuse, emotional harm, severe injury or exploitation of a child. For a situation to be considered child neglect the considerations of the parents' willingness and ability are made; therefore, a poor parent cannot be termed as negligent for not providing fancy clothing or a balanced diet to their child (Souza, 2017). Abandonment, on the other hand, is the extreme act of negligence of parents by disserting and falling to provide for the needs of their children. Abandonment ranges from the discarding of infants in trash cans to the kicking out of adolescents from their homes.

Child neglect cases have been very severe but tricky, and the child protection service has not relaxed a single muscle when dealing with these cases. A child could get neglected through their physical needs, emotional needs, medical and mental health and the general care and supervision they need from their parents or caregivers (Jo Ann & Rayleen, 2014). Physical neglect includes food, shelter, and clothing. A parent could deny their child a sufficient and well-balanced meal even though they have it. Some may commit this unawares due to low educational levels while others could continuously be denying their children food as a form of punishment.

In some recent disputing cases, some parents have been termed negligent for availing too much food to their children without making them do sufficient exercises causing them to be obese. These cases have been rendered life threating and life-limiting as the child may develop weight-related problems making their lifespan shorter than they could have lived if they were healthy. In some instances, the parent is given a dietary professional to monitor the eating habits of the child, and in severe cases, the child is taken from their home to foster care where they are strictly observed to enable them to shed off some of the weight burdens they carry. Proper housing is also a requirement for raising children and anything less than this pertains to neglect. Unhygienic,

Medical and mental health neglect is where a parent fails to provide treatment to a child who is sick or fails to follow psychological procedures and guidelines that their child needs. Delay in seeking medication and treatment is yet another form of medical neglect as the child is left to suffer from an illness that possibly suppressed or cured (Jo Ann &Rayleen, 2014). Educational neglect is another form of neglect that occurs when a parent fails to satisfy the educational needs of their child as stated by law. This negligence could be in the form of the parent failing to provide educational materials that the child requires, constant absenteeism of the child from school and the failure of the parent to enroll the child in time making them miss a month or so from school without any appropriate reasons.

Inadequate supervision of a child and insufficient constraints in cars are minor yet very serious forms of negligence. The two are provided for in the federal laws whereby a child, under the age of twelve shouldn't be left at home alone, and in vehicles, children should only be confined at the back seat and constrained with seat belts. Leaving a child at home alone can be a pre-exposure to danger and harm. A case of a mother seating at the front seat with an infant and upon an accident, the airbag killed the child; the mother was accused of \negligence because the car had a bumper sticker discouraging this habit.

Children exposed to any form of negligence or abandonment undergoes a series of reactions and consequences that may affect their entire lives. Adolescents abandoned by their parents are potential delinquents as they have no one to limit their actions or even guide them. The feeling of freedom prompts them to do anything they feel like doing, and this gets them in trouble with the society and authorities. Some of them may develop intergenerational transmission of the vices they witnessed growing up and use the same methods to raise up their children. Those who will be adversely affected by their parent's negligence will develop psychiatric disorder while those who will be struggling to suppress these feeling, end up being resilient and withdrawn from their families.

Domestic violence has been one of the leading causes of psychological and physical maltreatment as it inflicts pain both physically and emotionally to the children. The risks associated with maltreatment and abuses are long-term and very diverse, and the long-term effects may forever get expressed in their lives. The United States government has put up safe havens for mothers who in a way or the other wish to abandon their infants. This unit seeks to adopt these infants and put them in care units until they become old enough to make their own decision or when taken by other parents.

References.

Burlew &Kathleen (2013). "Parenting and problem behaviors in children of substance abusing parents". Children and Adolescence Mental Health.

Jo Ann, M. U., &Rayleen V De, L. (2014). The relationship between childhood physical abuse and adult attachment styles. Journal of Family Violence, 29(3), 223-234.

Souza, S. (2017). An introspective look at the parental identities and attachment styles of abusive parents (A PsyD clinical dissertation). California School of Professional Psychology Alliant International University. San Diego.