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Child Maltreatment Issues
The process of children's development plays a vital role in how they will grow into their
adulthood. Child maltreatment is vital in the present society. Child maltreatment refers to the
behavior towards kids that is not in line with the values and standard of conduct and comprises
significant dangers of causing emotional or physical harm. This paper will focus on the issue of
child maltreatment, including domestic violence, divorce, parental relationship, and
homelessness, and discuss what was learned from watching Dr. Burke Harris's video.
Domestic Violence
Domestic violence refers to the organized design of offensive actions that are utilized to
increase and preserve regulation and authority over another individual. The article by Pingley
(2017) focused on the effects of viewing internal ferocity on kids; therefore, the author started by
explaining that domestic violence affects every population exposed to it, including victims,
children, and perpetrators. Furthermore, it is vital to realize how intricate domestic ferocity is to
recognize the schemes that are affected by the issue efficiently. The article reviewed previous
literature that evaluated the involvement of kids who observe domestic violence and the effects
on their actions, modifications, and growth. The literature appraisal was created to examine the
question, what is the effect of witnessing domestic violence on kids? And they obtain various
themes, including the effects on behavioral systems adopting behaviors and expressing
behaviors. Other themes are multi-level viewpoints and dysregulation in intellectual and
expressive systems.
Pingley (2017) found that kids who experience domestic violence and spouse fierceness
are enormously rampant, and those kids are regarded as a greater danger for issues in complete
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growth. Furthermore, it also outlines the essentialness of recognizing the impacts of perceiving
domestic and spouse violence. Also, exposing kids to domestic violence is a great problem for
kids in every developmental stage, cultural and socioeconomic experience. However, for the
cycle of the issue to end, it will necessitate both the family and society to be involved since the
intricate nature of kids witnessing violence and trauma is imperative, and physicians treating this
population realize traumatic activities and monitor for the kid's resiliency. Moreover, the
community has a significant effect on how they react to how the victim of a traumatic event will
deal with the situation because the adverse perception makes the child re-victimized and feel
shame. Thus, there is a need for early intervention to stop the violence and evade children from
witnessing domestic violence and develop a social ecosystem that brings the problem into the
limelight.
Divorce and Parental relationship
The article that has addressed the child maltreatment issue of divorce and parental
relationship is by Demir-Dagdas et al. (2018). Demir-Dagdas et al. has used a multidisciplinary
viewpoint to evaluate the developmental results of divorce for kids from various racial and ethnic
settings. They have also performed reviews from several pieces of literature on the results of
divorce based on mental health, educational success, and family association for kids by
concentrating on discipline-precise features of divorce. Other critical areas explained in this
article are the assessment of parental divorce to kids with special needs and the important
policies and support that will help the present population. Family is critical in ensuring a suitable
development for children; however, many kids are raised in fostering and adoption because of
issues such as divorce and cohabitation, which affects parental relationships with them hence
affecting their proper growth. Divorce has become prevalent in the United States, and the
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impacts on children extend until their young adulthood stage from emotional, educational,
societal, and behavioral aspects.
The intricate family unions make children experience a multifaceted involvement.
However, the article has concentrated on the impacts of divorce on the wellbeing of kids from
racially and ethnically varied settings, impacts on special needs children, their academic
experiences, mental health, and parent-child associations. The issue at hand is divorce and
parental relationships. Demir-Dagdas et al. (2018) has established the connection between
spouse's deteriorating associations, particularly adverse communication among partners, and
finally, a divorce. Although stress is the main reason for reduced quality of communication
among partners, it is also the cause among children and their parents. Moreover, after the
divorce, the kid's relationship with the opposite sex parent will be more robust than the same-sex
parent, and negative father-kid association might encourage depressive expressions for boys and
girls. Demir-Dagdas et al. (2018) also found that girls are more impacted by depressive signs
when they have a deprived connection with their father after the divorce.
Homelessness
Dwomoh & Dinolfo's (2018) article concentrated on homelessness in children. Dwomoh
& Dinolfo (2018) began by explaining home and how it is essential in the development of
children. For instance, a home is very critical to children because it is where they depend on their
safety and security. It is an area with nurturance and love and where self-esteem, assurance, and
independence develop. Homelessness continues to be prevalent in many cities and towns living
in abandoned buildings and cars and is associated with parents being unemployed, addiction
problems, childhood abuse, and economic deprivation. Some of the causes of homelessness for
children and their parents are poverty, problems with single parenting, unemployment, and
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affordable housing. Children living in a homeless situation always face serious effects, for
instance, witnessing parental depression, hunger, and domestic violence. Other challenges the
children are expected to experience are less access to healthcare behavioral and physical health
challenges.
Dwomoh & Dinolfo (2018) continued to explore the impacts of the homelessness issue
on children. They found out that over a quarter of the homeless kids always experience violence,
and many others face depression and anxiety. The post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, and
depression experienced by parents of homeless children emanate from stress, affecting their brain
by damaging their reasoning abilities, learning, and social associations. Also, the child's
academic life is affected by having no home; for instance, Dwomoh & Dinolfo (2018) stated that
homeless children have more chance of repeating a school grade and are more likely to be absent
than their peers. Furthermore, staying without a home predisposes these children to risky
environmental situations that adversely affect their health. For example, most children have a
high chance of getting asthma and reoccurring infections because of poor nutrition. Pediatricians
are thus required to respond effectively to the issue by creating an awareness program and
working together with community-based services.
What Was Learned from the Video?
The video by Dr. Nadine Burke Harris has provided significant lessons concerning the
effects of childhood trauma on the health of individuals across their lifetimes. I have never
thought that the traumatic events that children pass through in their early life could have such
significant effects on their health in the future. For instance, as Dr. Nadine states, childhood
trauma is not a thing for people to overcome as they grow up because the recurrent stress
produced from abuse and neglect has substantial impacts on a person's brain development (TED,
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2015). for instance, the profound and pervasive experiences such as abuse, a parent having
mental health problems, and substance abuse always alter individuals' physiology because it
impacts parts such as the nucleus accumbens. Thus, this hinders the prefrontal cortex essential
for impulse regulation and the critical role vital for learning. I have also learned that when
certain functions are affected, they may pose a great risk of heart illnesses and lung cancer
occurring in this child in their later years.
In summation, child maltreatment prevalent in the current society affects children's
development and future life in significant ways. Nevertheless, some child maltreatment issues
exist in society, and people are not aware of the substantial impacts. For instance, domestic
violence has increased in the present society. When children witness such events, they are
disposed to stress, which might affect their lives tremendously, resulting in a traumatic life. On
the other hand, divorce mostly emanates from disagreements and even violence. When children
are experiencing this in their lives, it always breaks the good relationship they had with their
parents. Finally, homelessness is another critical issue that affects children. Home to children
represents many things, especially a sense of security and safety, thus leading to poor health,
educational achievement, and stress. The video from Dr. Nadine has provided significant insight
on the effects of traumatic events in their future life, which may lead to heart illness and lung
cancer.
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References
Demir-Dagdas, T., Isik-Ercan, Z., Intepe-Tingir, S., & Cava-Tadik, Y. (2018). Parental divorce
and children from diverse backgrounds: Multidisciplinary perspectives on mental health,
parent-child relationships, and educational experiences. Journal of Divorce &
Remarriage, 59(6), 469-485.
Dwomoh, I., & Dinolfo, E. A. (2018). Effects of homelessness on children.
https://doi.org/10.1542/pir.2018-0047
Pingley, T. (2017). The impact of witnessing domestic violence on children: A systematic review.
TED. (2015). How childhood trauma affects health across a lifetime | Nadine Burke Harris.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95ovIJ3dsNk
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