Violence against Children during Covid-19 Pandemic
The pandemic has increased the risk of children’s violence in their communities, homes that has affected the mental health of children. This has disrupted children’s well-being and health badly. There are several factors that are covered under violence against children i.e.; sexual, emotional, assault, bullying, homicide, neglect and physical abuse (Almeida et al.,2022). The violence against children used to be done in the institutional, private and public spaces. The pandemic has also drawn attention towards violence that is done against children and women’s in the society. The pandemic has also harmed the social, physical and, mental well-being of children and specially the homeless and the poor children were hit hard with the rise in the pandemic. Social distancing and school being close has affected the mental health of the children (Augusti et al.,2021). The ultimate problem of the pandemic was the safety concern for the children for whom there is lack of safety issue at home because of violence being an issue. There can be adverse effect on the mental and physical health of a child where violence stands as an issue in their home. It has been seen through various surveys that 41% of female have experienced violence from their intimate partner and 1 in 6 homicide children were even killed by their parents. According to the survey done in 2019, it has been observed that many families have experienced domestic violence and child abuse (Azzopardi et al.,2022). Different forms of violence can happen with children in school, family and community. School being closed during the pandemic has increased isolation for the children that has hampered the mental and emotional health of the child and violence and child abuse has disturbed their mental health that has resulted in children being frustrated and anxious about their life being hampered during the lockdown time in pandemic situation. This essay will further highlight on the child being affected by the parent’s abuse during Covid-19 pandemic.
Adolescent or children to parent violence is the form of violence that comes under the abuse and the domestic violence that has become the major concern in many of the family during the pandemic time. The main focus of this essay is on the increase in the abusive and violent behaviour of parents towards their children. Abuse on adolescent is the global and rising concern that has led to many health consequences of children in the long run. According to the research in 2011, the child sexual abuse around the globe has increased at a rapid rate. 8% of boys and 20% girls were sexually abused by their parents and also the community people (Cappa et al.,2021).There were certain consequences and risk on the mental health issues faced by adolescence and children with the rise in the pandemic. The worldwide survey report states that there were 36.3% emotional abuse cases, 22.6% physical abuse cases and 16.4% neglect cases (Fegert et al.,2020). Exposure of family violence against children has resulted in a serious health and social problems. During the pandemic, social distancing, business and school closure, other lockdown measures and travel restrictions can reduce the transmission of the disease globally but it will also increase the risk of sexual abuse and violence against adolescent around the world. Since the beginning of the pandemic, adolescents and children have faced violence and abuse from their parents in their homes and sometimes they also have faced abuse in their institutions. Children’s socioecological systems were disrupted due to the pandemic environment and hence the child maltreatment has increased in a huge rate (Griffith 2020). There was high risk of child abuse during the pandemic crisis due to people being quarantined in their homes and hence it has become frustrating and resulted into anxiety and depression. There were major changes in many families and their children’s life due to the sudden increase of unemployment, family uncertainty and child poverty. There is always greater risk of violence in tough and mental pressure situation according to criminological theory (Gupta et al.,2020). Due to unemployment faced by parents during the pandemic has resulted in physical and psychological abuse towards the adolescence and the children’s. The mainly reason of child maltreatment during the pandemic was the unemployment faced by many of the families members due to the lockdown phase in the global crisis time. The pandemic has disrupted the daily lives of the parents and the young children which has significantly increased the risk of child abuse and family violence. According to the data seen in 2018, it has been observed that almost 3 million children lives were disturbed due to the involvement in the child maltreatment investigations (Heimann et al.,2021). It has also been seen that the cases of child abuse has been mostly reported of those children whose parents were unemployed during the pandemic outbreak. Due to disturbance in the parental mental health due to loss of employment and other factors, there was a rapid increase in the child abuse or violence at the pandemic time.
Adolescent or Children to Parent Violence
Due to mental stress and pressure over the parents due to various economic, social and financial factors, the adolescent abuse has been increased at a high rate during the pandemic time. The financial difficulties and social disconnectedness has increase parents stress level and anxiety over the time period during the pandemic. The violence and abuse against children has also affected their mental health and make them more frustrated as they were quarantine in their homes and always have to face parental abuse. Lack of social closure and school closure has badly impacted the emotional and social well-being of the children (Imran et al.,2020). Child abuse, neglect from the parent’s side can lead to several risk factors that can result into negative outcomes on the health of the children during the pandemic. There was also rise in mental health emergencies in many of the families across the globe during the pandemic outbreak and lockdown phase. Adolescents and the children were forced to live in a stressful condition in their houses that has resulted in the increase in the violence cases against them by their parents, peer and other people to whom they are always close too or with whom they interact on a regular basis.Children’s in many of the abuse cases have also suffered from depression, frustration, anxiety and other psychological problems (Katz et al.,2020). Some of the children also experienced domestic violence because of the closure of social life, school and other outdoor activities that has impacted mental health of many children around the globe. Thus children and adolescent has become more vulnerable and were being exposed to family abuse. There is a sharp increase in the violation towards adolescent and children during the pandemic times (Lawson et al.,2020). It has been noticed that most of the children and adolescent had suffered clinginess, distraction, family ignorance and other fear from their parents and other close people during the pandemic days. During the pandemic time due to the lockdown phase children were at home for a longer period of time that has made them more frustrated and increase the risk in existing mental condition. There were psychosocial effects of quarantine and social distancing on the well-being of children and adolescent (Lee et al.,2021). There were long term health consequences over children during the lockdown phase. Some Youngers have also experienced loneliness at their home in the presence of their parents at home. Parents were also overloaded with many of the responsibilities during the pandemic time as they had to deal with their working life and also had to manage their children at home (Overlien, 2020). This is the main reason of parents getting stressful and frustrated because of pressure over them that have potentially increased the risk of adolescent facing behavioural and emotional problems during the pandemic.
Violence was very obvious in these days during the pandemic time as it is done by the third person. Adolescent and children were exposed to several violence and abuse situation in their homes. These have increased the violence against the children by their parents, relatives and other peers those were closed to the children. During the pandemic, children’s were more interactive and were busy in using the digital tools and as a result they were separated from their family members and peers because of less interaction with them on the daily basis (Ramaswamy et al.,2020). There are many forms of violence that were faced by the children during the lockdown phase. Mostly children use to face psychological and physical violence that are being shown through misleading treatment and humiliating punishments given to the adolescent and the children’s. During that time physical punishment was very common even in the younger children life that has disturbed their mental health and peace of their life. According to the recent estimates done by UN, it has been seen that there was 48% of psychological aggression with that of 55.2% of physical aggression in the children that has disturbed their mental life balance during those days (Roje Dapic, et al.,2020). Another violence that was also common is Sexual abuse or violence which is a dangerous violation that is done against adolescents and younger children in the form of harassment, abuse and assault. In most of the cases, sexual violence in home done against children where the committers were the parents or the peers close to the victims i.e.; children’s. Mostly the girl child and adolescents are the victims of sexual harassment and abuse. There is another type of violence that also became common during the pandemic outbreak. Many of the children’s and even other people too were engaged in using digital technologies tools. Children were lost in the digital world during that phase as it has become the best bridge for continuing the daily activities like children’s were engaged most of time in doing online classes and for other communication means which has increases the risk of vulnerability. It has given rise to online violence like sexual violence and cyber bullying through digital technology and children as well as adolescents were the victims of such online violence through the medial of digital technologies (Singh et al.,2020). The violence against children and adolescents has given rise to many of the cases of youngers suffering from psychological and physical assault that is caused directly by the violence they used to suffer directly on daily basis. The children and adolescents were physically punished, mentally tortured and were neglected by their parents on their daily activities. Children’s were mostly stands as the victims of physical violence done by their parents during the pandemic time. At that time violence against the children and adolescents came out to be the universal problem that continued to have long term psychological and physical effects on the children’s and adolescents (Wu et al.,2020).
Consequences of Child Abuse during Covid-19 Pandemic
The national crisis has resulted into an increase in the stressful situation in many families around the globe. The crisis time has given rise to major challenges faced by the children’s and society as well, all over the world. It was been estimated globally that 1 billion of adolescents or children aged between 2-18 years have faced emotional, psychical and sexual violence or has been neglected by their parents during the time of the pandemic situation (Senol et al.,2021). There was an adverse effect on the mental health and well- being of young children because of domestic violence or abuse. Even children who face violence from their parents end can have negative health risk behaviours like misuse of Alcohol, likely to smoke and can adopt different risk behaviour that can give rise to depression, anxiety and other mental health issues that can lead their life into difficult life issues. This kind of situation can even lead to death of children and adolescents as 80% of adolescents are the victims of homicides that are the one of the top cause that can lead even to death or suicide done by children’s (Wu et al.,2020). If there is an exposure of violence faced by children at an early age then it can even lead to damage in the brain parts and the brain can even stop development with lifetime consequences over the adolescents and children’s. Violence from parents end can even contribute in children’s facing non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cardiovascular disease and can lead to other health conditions too in a small age. There are hundreds of victims of youth violence who has faced injuries because of physical assault and fighting. Children were at the risk for the negative interactions with their parents that has led to physical and psychological violence towards them. Parents who were stressed during the pandemic time were more likely to respond towards their children in an abuse and aggressive ways that reflect anxious behaviours towards the adolescents and children’s (Wu et al.,2020). Extreme level of stress and frustration lead to the risk of neglect and abuse faced by children’s from their parents end. During the pandemic days, children’s were punished by their parents and it seems like adolescents are the ones through which parents used to reduce their stress and frustration by physically and assaulting their children’s. There was a direct impact of parents stress on violence done upon the children that can have a negative effect on the psychological and physical well-being of children’s and adolescents. There were even children’s and adolescents showing behavioural and emotional alterations in the lockdown phase when they were struck at their homes. This happened because of continuous violence and assault faced by the children’s from their parents end and other peers with whom they interact in a daily basis. As a result, the pandemic has cause several changes in the lives of 1.6 billion of adolescents and children’s that has affected children’s mental well-being and also had consequences on their health for a long time (Yamaoka et al.,2021).
Increase in Child Maltreatment during Covid-19 Pandemic
It is very obvious for the children to feel anxiety, stress, worry and grief during the pandemic time. Families and children’s were subjected to isolation and quarantine that has increased the risk of abuse, neglect and violence towards them. There was a greater risk of children’s facing gender based violence and other forms of violence that automatically increased their stress level and lead to different health consequences over them for a longer time period. Violence towards children’s and adolescents has become a global and serious issue in the past years that use to have long term consequences over the mental well-being of children. To curb this global issue there should be psychological support provided to the children’s for maintaining a peaceful life balance for them. There is an support provided by government to adolescents and children for the prevention of violence or abuse. Government has raised certain campaigns on violence don to children by their parents, expanded the helplines, and altered family law and justice system (Yamaoka et al.,2021).The measures taken by government should be timely implemented to reduce violence against the children during and after the pandemic era. Children’s must need mental health care as one of the psychological prevention from violence. Psychological care facilities must be open to all the victims who have faced violence or abuse from their parents during the pandemic time. With the help of psychological care support, the mental health disorders faced by children’s and adolescents like anxiety, stress, suicidal thoughts, depression can be prevented to certain extent (Zhang et al.,2022).There should also be communications practices between parents and children’s must be adopted in the household to curb the effects of violence over children and reduce the stress level faced by them during the pandemic time. Parents should establish a peaceful and happy household environment for their children that will help in developing and growing full potential in the adolescents so that they can enjoy the environment by having fun and can also stay healthy and safe from the pandemic outbreak. The parents must facilitates children’s with an open environment where there words are expressed freely through an open communication with their parents and peer ones that will help adolescents in expressing their feelings and thoughts freely without any fear of getting abuse by their parents. Both the adolescents and parents must know how to manage their stress, anxiety and fear level during the pandemic that will automatically reduce the risk of abuse and violence over children’s done from their parent’s end. Child line has been developed to support the children by reaching out to them and providing immediate help for long term assistance (Zhang et al.,2022).This all preventions that are being adopted will further help in protecting adolescents and children from violence and abuse done by their parents and their peer ones. Child line has helped children to come over violence and abuse and also in overcoming the stressful situation during the pandemic time (Zhang et al.,2022).
Hence it can be concluded from the above essay that there was a rapid increase in the violence and abuse against children that has negatively impacted the well-being of children. . Lack of social closure and school closure has badly impacted the emotional and social well-being of the children. There was a direct impact of parents stress on violence done on the children that can have a negative effect on the psychological and physical well-being of children’s and adolescents. Impact of violence over the mental health of children was the critical concern during the pandemic time. They become vulnerable because they were being physically and psychologically assaulted by their parents and as of result they fail to manage the anxiety and stress level that were disturbing their mental health and was giving arise to various health concern issues in them. There was a direct impact of parents stress on violence done upon the children. The children and adolescents were physically punished, mentally tortured and were neglected by their parents on their daily activities. Children’s must need mental health care as one of the psychological prevention from violence. From the above research it can be observed that there was a rapid increase in anxiety and depression in adolescents during the pandemic time. As a result, the pandemic has causes several changes in the lives of adolescents and children’s that has affected their mental well-being and also had consequences on their health for a longer time. Moreover parents should monitor the psychosocial function of children and adolescents and they must provide the needed support to their children so that they can meet the challenges that are being faced by them during the pandemic and must recover from it and lastly should lead their life happily by staying safe and healthy in their home during the pandemic days.
Impact on Mental Health of Children and Adolescent due to Parental Abuse during Covid-19 Pandemic
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