Protecting our Children and our Future - The Fight Against Child Maltreatment

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This article will discuss in detail physical, behavioural, psychological and societal consequences of child maltreatment. As the WHO recognises a lack in conformity in research methods and legislative responses, the article has been written in the hopes of raising awareness and increasing pressure to form a uniform international response.

What is child maltreatment?

Child maltreatment occurs when a child under the age of 18 experiences physical, mental, emotional and/or sexual abuse an/or neglect.

Some children are more at risk of becoming a victim of abuse or neglect due to:

• Being under 4 years old or an adolescent

• Failing to meet the expectations of parents

• Having special needs or abnormal physical features

• Identifying as LGBTQ+

To put into perspective how serious abuse and neglect can be on early life development it is important to know that the stage of a child’s life developmentally are the first five years. Negative formative years can have serious consequences on a child’s development and can result in mental health problems which can result in long term health problems beyond that of the initial abuse. With this in mind it becomes more concerning when considering that 300 million children globally between the age of 2 and 4 years old regularly suffer from physical or mental abuse.

Physical consequences

Child Welfare has found that children who experience abuse and/or neglect are at a higher risk of suffering from: diabetes, lung disease, malnutrition, vision impairment, heart attacks, arthritis, back problems, brain damage, high blood pressure, cancer and strokes amongst a few. Moreover, they refer to the research of Bick & Nelson (2016) which found that abuse and/or neglect can result in areas of the brain not forming or functioning as well as those who had not been abused or neglected. The areas of the brain listed include those that process emotions (amygdala); are responsible for learning and memory (hippocampus) and help coordinate motor behaviour and executive functioning (cerebellum) to list just a few.

A recent study in 2018 by C. Nemeroff and a group of scientists also found a correlation between a specific forms of maltreatment and changes in the various areas of the brain that process the type of abuse experienced. For example, in sexual child abuse victims the somatosensory cortex which receives and processes sensory information from the whole body was thinner. Meanwhile those who experienced emotional abuse also showed a thinner cerebral cortex which plays a key role in perception, awareness and consciousness amongst other matters; damage to which can lead to cognitive, sensory or emotional difficulties.

Behavioural consequences

John Sterling writing for the American Academy of Paediatrics found that children who suffered from early abuse and/or neglect were likely to have behaviours that persisted even after they were no longer in that environment. Sterling highlights neurobiological research that showed that early abuse resulted in the altering of psychological responses to stressful stimuli.

Child welfare provides some examples of behavioural consequences:

• Unhealthy sexual practices (Thompson et al., 2017)

• Juvenile delinquency leading to adult criminality (Herrenkohl et al., 2017)

• Addiction (LeTendre & Reed, 2017; Choi et al, 2017)

• Future perpetration of maltreatment (Yang, Font, Ketchum & Kim 2018)

Psychological consequences

With the evidence already provided on long-term physical and behavioural consequences, it is not surprising that psychological consequences are just as severe; here are but a few examples:

• Disrupted brain development resulting in diminished executive functioning and cognitive skills: Executive function includes working memory, flexible thinking and self-control whilst cognitive skills are core skills such as thinking, reading, learning and remembering.

• Increased risk to poor mental and emotional health: It has been found that those who suffered from abuse and/or neglect are more likely to experience psychiatric disorders, depression and anxiety. Williams et al (2016) even found that those who suffered before the age of 7 responded poorly to antidepressant medication which makes treatment more difficult.

• Those who are placed into foster care struggle with attachment and social difficulties: Attachment disorders describe psychiatric illnesses that young children can develop as a result of abuse and/or neglect. There are two possible types: Reactive Attachment Disorder and Disinhibited Social Engagement Disorder.

Societal consequences

Not only do the survivors of abuse suffer but so do communities as a whole; demonstrating how vital it is for everyone to work together to prevent child maltreatment. Christino Okello wrote in 2019 on how child abuse may be to blame for France’s concerning rates of femicide. In her article she quotes Violaine Guérin, a gynaecologist and endocrinologist specialising in sexual violence, who stated ‘Violence breeds violence. If we succeed in eradicating violence against girls and boys in childhood, we will have an impact in preventing violence at an adult age’.

France estimated that the cost of child maltreatment was €10 billion a year but Guérin states that it only includes medical bills and that in fact, it is likely to have cost closer to €100 billion per year.

Similarly, in 2012 the CDC estimated that child abuse and neglect costed the US $124 billion. Since then new research has been conducted and it has been estimated that the annual lifetime economic burden on the US population is $428 billion based on substantiated nonfatal victims of child maltreatment. This again rises when looking at the investigated incident of nonfatal victims to $2 trillion; demonstrating how through the use of new methodology and time passing we are able to see a trend in which costs and numbers continue to rise.

Both France and the US show how taxing a lack of response to child maltreatment can be which paints a stark picture for global economic costs of lack of prevention of child maltreatment. This is particularly the case when considering that those who have been abused are more likely than other adults to abuse others; demonstrating how important it is to fight against on an international level.

Conclusion

Various studies such as those listed all indicate that early trauma through abuse or neglect are likely to result in long term health consequences. It is therefore vital for in the prevention of child maltreatment and support for survivors to understand different outcomes of abuse and neglect in order to best meet the needs of each child, adolescent and adult.

However there is a major set back as the WHO notes that child mistreatment is complex and difficult to study due to a lack of uniform research methods being used globally. These include: definitions of child mistreatment used; the type studies; coverage and quality of statistics and surveys from self-reporting victims, parents or caregivers. This would indicate that in order to successfully combat child mistreatment, international law should be developed and used for the common goal of protecting all children.

Project Blue Ribbon

Article 10 is proud to be collaborating with Project Blue Ribbon (PBR) a student-led, non-profit organisation based in India on a mission to bring increased awareness to the realities and long-term repercussions of child abuse.

How can you get involved?

Follow @project.blue.ribbon on Instagram

Here, PBR provides a plethora of information bites on child maltreatment presented in a digitally engaging, creative and most importantly an easily understandable format. Interactive posts cover the issue of child maltreatment through a variety of sub-topics within the problem of child maltreatment, ranging from stories of child abuse survivors, to upcoming events.