Child Abuse And Neglect Abuse Of Children example essay topic

Child Abuse and Neglect Abuse of children has become a major social problem and a main cause of many people's suffering and personal problems. Neglect, physical abuse, and sexual abuse have an immediate and long-term effects on a child's development. The long-term effects of abuse and neglect of a child can be seen in psychiatric disorders, increased rates of substance abuse, and relationship difficulties. Child abuse and neglect is a huge problem. People that abuse are people who have been abused and neglected themselves.

There are links between neglect and abuse and later psychological, emotional, behavioral, and interpersonal disorders. The basis for this linkage is the impact that abuse and neglect have on brain development. Researchers have found important links between interpersonal experiences and neuro biological development. Children who have been sexually abused are at significant risk of developing anxiety disorders (2.0 times the average), major depressive disorders (3.4 times average), alcohol abuse (2.5 times average), drug abuse (3.8 times average), and anti-social behavior (4.3 times average).

Generally the left hemisphere of the brain is the site of language, motor activity on the right side of the body, and logical thought based on language. The right hemisphere of the brain is responsible for motor activity on the left side of the body, context perceptions, and holistic perception. The orbit o-frontal cortex (the part of the brain directly behind the eyes) is responsible for integrating emotional responses generated in the limbic system with higher cognitive functions, such as planning and language, in the cerebral cortex's prefrontal lobes. The left orbit o-frontal cortex is responsible for memory creation while the right orbit o-frontal cortex is responsible for memory retrieval. Healthy functioning requires an integrated right and left hemisphere. A substantial number of synaptic connections among brain cells develop during the first year of life.

An integrated brain requires connections between the hemispheres by the corpus. Abused and neglected children have smaller corpus than non-abused children. Abused and neglected children have poorly integrated cerebral hemispheres. This poor integration of hemispheres and underdevelopment of the cortex is the basis for such symptoms as difficulty regulating emotion, lack of cause-effect thinking, inability to accurately recognize emotions in others, inability of the child to articulate the child's own emotions, an incoherent sense of self and autobiographical history, and a lack of conscience.

The brains of abused and neglected children are not as well integrated as the brains of non-abused children. This helps explain why abused and neglected children have significant difficulties with emotional regulation, integrated functioning, and social development. Conscience development and the capacity for empathy are largely functions of the orbit o-frontal cortex. When development in this area of the brain is hindered, there are important social and emotional difficulties. It is very interesting that the orbit o-frontal cortex is sensitive to face recognition and eye contact.

Abused and neglected children frequently have disorders of attachment because of their birth-parents lack of sensitive responsive interactions with the child. Early interpersonal experiences have a profound impact on the brain because the brain circuits responsible for social perception are the same as those that integrate such functions as the creation of meaning, the regulation of body states, the regulation of emotion, the organization of memory, and the capacity for interpersonal communication and empathy. Stressful experiences that are overtly traumatizing or chronic cause chronic elevated levels of neuro endocrine hormones. High levels of these hormones can cause permanent damage to the hippocampus, which is critical for memory.

[5] Based on this we can assume that psychological trauma can impair a person's ability to create and retain memory and impede trauma resolution. Abused and neglected children exhibit a variety of behaviors that can lead to any number of diagnoses. However, the effect of early abuse and neglect on the child can be seen in just a few critical areas of development. These areas include emotional regulation, response flexibility, a coherent integrated sense of self across time, the ability to engage in affect attunement with significant others (empathy and emotional connectedness), and conscience development. The effects of early maltreatment on a child's development are profound and long lasting. It is the impact of maltreatment on a child's developing brain that causes effects seen in a wide variety of domains including social, psychological, and cognitive development.

The ability to regulate emotions and become emotionally attuned with another depends on early experiences and the development of specific regions of the brain. Early maltreatment causes deficits in the development of these brain regions, primarily the orbit o-frontal cortex and corpus, because of the toxic effects of stress hormones on the developing brain. These findings strongly suggest that effective treatment requires an affectively attuned relationship. Siegel stated, 'As parents reflect with their securely attached children on the mental states that create their shared subjective experience, they are joining with them in an important co-constructive process of understanding how the mind functions.

The inherent feature of secure attachment - contingent, collaborative communication - is also a fundamental component in how interpersonal relationships facilitate internal integration in a child. ' [6] This has implications for the effective treatment of maltreated children. For example, when in a therapeutic relationship the client is able to reflect upon aspects of traumatic memories and experience the affect associated with those memories without becoming, the client develops an expanded capacity to tolerate increasing amounts of affect. The client learns to self-regulate. The attuned resonant relationship between client and therapist enables the client to make sense (a left-hemisphere function) out of memories, autobiographical representations, and affect (right hemisphere functions).