Increase in Physical Child Abuse in Australia
Discuss about the National Comparisons Of Child Protection Systems.
Child abuse and neglect is one of Australia’s most significant social problems and is increasing at an alarming rate, causing psychological and life threatening issues such as suicide (Joiner, 2005). The Australian Bureau of Statistics (2017) showed that physical child abuse is a major issue with children aged zero to 12 being placed in the care of other families and protection programs. This has doubled between 2000-2011 and rising from four to eight per 1,000 children in Australia. Furthermore, studies have shown that children who are exposed to violence or physical child abuse are more likely to experience a wide range of adverse psychosocial and behavioural outcomes. Such behavioural outcomes result in 65,000 of the population attempting suicide and 600,000 of the population contemplating suicide (Australian Bureau of Statistics, 2017).
The Department of Health and Human services for children and families (2006) showed that children are affected by their family environment and almost 900,000 children are classified as maltreated by parents and other care givers. This coincides with the statistics from the Australian Bureau of statistics (2017) with the rate of suicide in Australia increasing dramatically over the decade from 2000-2011, resulting in 2,292 males and 735 female suicide in 2015. Suicide is complex with many diverse pathways leading to its development and these risk factors include psychosocial, neurobiological and psycho-pathological factors (Gould, 1998). It is recognised that childhood trauma can lead to suicide (Beitchman, 1992). potential mediators that influence this behavior include depression, anxiety and neglect.
Life experiences along with family circumstances- positive or that of negative has an impact on the vulnerability of the child. It has been found that in the absence of protective factors, risk pertaining to serious outcome increases. The children who are socially disadvantaged and live within dangerous neighbourhood have more chances of committing suicide in the young adulthood. Research has brought out the fact that maltreatment type can be said to be inter-related. A large number of the young people who have to face childhood abuse have to face more than one kind of abuse. Complex trauma helps in the reflection of the interacting symptom and it often involves an interpersonal element. The trauma that is caused owing to child abuse have serious repurcussions on that of the developing brain. The formative mind of the children becomes badly affected by these experiences and it can permanently damage their mind. The exposure to chronic trauma can lead to persistent psychological problem for the children and the adolescent. Child abuse can have an effect on all domains pertaining to development – physical, emotional along with social. Psychodynamic theory helps in explaining personality in the lines of conscious along with unconscious forces. Psychodynamic theories stress on the fact that the experiences pertaining to childhood can help in the shaping of personality of an individual. The adverse experiences can have a severe impact on the mind of the children and they become more prone to suicide at the stage of young adulthood.
Negative Outcomes of Violence and Physical Abuse on Children
There are different child protection legislations within Australia and the authorities often intervene owing to the harm that may be inflicted on the children. The state government of Australia is responsible for the operation in relation to child protection services. There are different kinds of acts in Australia like Children and Young People Act 2008, Children and Young Persons Act 1998 and Child Protection Act 1999 that wants to offer protection to the young children in Australia so that they do not have to suffer the brunt of child abuse and neglect that can irreparably damage their mental setup. The children are protected with the help of these Acts so that they do not become prone to suicide in their later life.
Australia acts as a signatory to that of United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child that helps in providing guidance to the states. The legislative principles help in the reflection of the service goals pertaining to the government. The legislation pertaining to Australian jurisdictions includes the young people in the act of decision making that helps in offering protection to the children. The legislations play a great role in maintaining the cultural identity of the children and protecting them from all kinds of abuses in the society. The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children was carried out by Council of Australian Government that places the interests of the children at the centre of legislative development.
According to the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2017) reported that government as well as non-government organisations have both taken action to fight the child abuse prevalent. They have provided many policies and interventions for family and child abuse prevention in Australia. A comprehensive and dedicated governmental efforts from the Australian Institute of Family Studies (2017) and Commonwealth of Australia (2005) have formed three types of preventions and these include primary, secondary and tertiary preventions.
The prevention of child abuses and neglect is a complex problem needing a whole set of strategies and actions to be successful in stopping maltreatment from occurring. As a result, The National Child Protection Week is promoted by the National Association for Prevention of Child Abuse and Neglect (2017): for example, the Pete and Penny program which is sponsored by the Medical Benefit Fund and media campaigns are run by the state government (Australian Institute of Family Studies, 2017). The basic aim of this primary intervention is to provide awareness and stop abuse before it begins.
Childhood Trauma and Its Link with Suicide
Furthermore, the secondary prevention are programs that target specific portion of the population that are more at risk of abuse and that are in need of greater support. The programs include young parent support services, isolated single parent services and respite services, including crisis care (National Child Protection Council Secretariat).
However, as for Tertiary prevention this program/intervention is to help those who have already been abused. The aim of the tertiary prevention is to prevent abuse from reoccurring and provide counselling services for victims to overcome the trauma. Such tertiary preventions include Family Services, help-lines with professionally trained counsellors, and community services that provide counselling and education for those from abusive families.
According to Erikson (1956) in each developmental stage people face new challenges, and the stage outcome depends on how people handle the challenge. Erikson believed that during the first stage infant’s basic needs are met by the parents and this interaction leads to trust or mistrust. To support this according to the Child Development Institute (2005) it further explained that a child’s first trust is with the parent or caregiver, and if the parent exposes the child to warmth, regularity and dependable affection, the infants view of the world will be one of trust. However, if the parents fail to provide a secure environment and meet the child’s basic needs a sense of mistrust will result. This leads to the development of mistrust which are feelings of frustration, suspicion, withdrawal and lack of confidence.
Furthermore, applying this theory to a child that is neglected. Now neglect has no universally accepted definition (Rosenman & Rogers, 2004). However, neglect is often described as the failure of the caregiver to provide adequate supervision, emotional nurturance, appropriate medical care, food, clothing and shelter for a child (Scott, 2012)). As a result, neglect is due to the minimal services provided by the parents or caregivers, and Erikson believed that it is fundamental during the early stages of development for the parents or caregivers to meet the basic needs of the infant.
It has been found with the help of statistics that around 45, 714 Australian children gets abused and they have to suffer throughout their life for being victims.
As a result, neglect and child abuses is determined by the antagonistic parent-child behaviour and interaction (Jones, 2014), and this is associated with punching, kicking, biting or otherwise wounding a child. This is a visible form of child maltreatment, resulting in bruises, broken bones and psychological damage such as disrupted social-emotional development, poor self-control, social alienation, immaturity and low self-esteem (Theoklitou, 2012). The consequence of experiencing child abuses and neglect also affects a child’s cognitive development, therefore they lack changes in methods of styles of thinking, language ability, language use and lack the ability to form trusting relationship/friendships (Culp, 1991). Hence, Culp (1991) further stated that their social and problem solving skills are not fully developed, and this results in the neglected abused child in having poor interactional skills with others.
Different Kinds of Child Protection Laws and Acts in Australia
Recent studies support this and have proven that an abused preschooler can lead to all sorts of neglect especially in the schooling environment. It provides evidence that cognitive development is a fundamental element in a child’s life. But abused children lack this component and come across as immature and slow learners. Consequently, the distress impact linked to child abuse and neglect can have long-term detrimental effects to both physical and thoughts of suicide that can carry on into adolescence and adulthood.
It is shown that abused and neglected preschoolers may develop serious psychological maladjustment, and this includes the lack of trust, empathy and emotional detachment. This indicates that maltreatment appeared to have the effect on children’s’ understanding of specific emotional displays, hence by not showing particular emotions this may continue the neglect from others. Frued (1980) conveyed an attachment theory and described that personality development progresses at a series of stages. To further support his theoretical explanation, studies revealed that an infant is required to develop a relationship with one primary parent for social and emotional growth for normal cognitive development. Furthermore, Freud agreed with this identifying attachment theory as classifying the relationship with the parent as the main influence on the child’s developmental process.
As a result, continuous neglect causes the abused child to more likely exhibit behavioural difficulties, and severe withdrawal or aggression toward peers (Dubowitz, Papas, Black,& Star; Shonk&Cicchetti, 2001). These maltreated children are generally known as ‘different’ in the eyes of others, such as peers and school teachers since they stand to lack many developmental characteristics. Therefore, they are withdrawn and considered as loners in their school environment (Hart, 2000).
Child abuse along with neglect can have an impact on the psychological along with behavioural development pertaining to children. The physical consequence can range from that of minor injuries to that of brain damage. The psychological consequence can vary from attention problems to that of brain syndrome. It has been found that a large number of the children who are abused do not reveal any kind of sign of extreme disturbance. The relation between cause and results of the child maltreatment can prove to be problematic because there are some factors that helps in the stimulation of abusive behavior. It has been found that maltreatment occurs on account of different kinds of problems in the social environment. New research have brought out the fact that the children who have to face repeated abuse are prone to committing suicide in that of their later life. It can be said that sexual abuse in childhood is associated with that of suicidality (Cicchetti, Horung and Reed, 2000). It was found that the children who were repeatedly abused were more prone to suicide attempts. Sexual abuse when carried out by the immediate family member have the greatest impact on the mental health of the children. The abuse carried out by family members can have impact on developing of health attachment pattern. Research has brought out the fact that the suicidal adolescent show certain kind of characteristic temperament. It has been found that the individuals who have some kind of pressure in their life display negative mood that can have a grave impact on their mind and may compel them to commit suicide in their later life. The children who have to face childhood abuse develop anxiety disorders and they face higher risk of suicide. Research has shown that the individuals who suffer from depression have been victims of some kind of abuse in their life. The physical abuse that the adolescents have to face in the society does not equip them with the ability to develop adequate relationships and this severely affects their life at a later stage. They become emotionally very fragile on account of the emotional disturbance that they have to undergo in life and become prone to suicide in their life.
National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children
Menninger expanded on Freud’s theory and identified three concepts of hostility of the suicidal individual; the wish to be killed (guilt), the wish to kill (revenge), and the wish to die (hopelessness) (Maeis et al., 2000). These people wish to express their anger and aggression to those they feel mistreated them. With the end result of wishing to die, due to the unbearable pain they’ve experience throughout their lives.
Violent behavior can occur with both parents’ and possess the ability to parent their children to a degree that they are abused. Violence is the most common form of maltreatment, resulting in severe damage of health and deleterious short and long term effects on cognitive, social-emotional and behavioural developmental processes (McPherson, 2002). Furthermore, in the 1960s Beck developed Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. According to this theory, how we think (cognitive), how we feel (emotion) and how we act (behavior) are all linked together (Martin, 2017). As a result, negative and unrealistic thoughts cause distress and result in undesirable outcome. Freud expressed that individuals whom experience a traumatic event in early childhood or adolescence may reenact that experience in adulthood. For instance, if a person witnesses abuse or there is history of suicide in the family this behavior may be reenacted due to traumatic experiences. Therefore, the distress a person experiences at these times can distort there thinking, so it becomes difficult to see possible solutions to problems and this leads to thoughts of hopelessness and the belief that they can only escape through suicide.
Additionally, developmental processes are fundamental in a child’s growth as they learn how to control their anxieties and issues, problem solving, independence, and social competence. Hence, unstable and abusive relationships increase the risk of being neglected. To further support this, a child who is directly exposed to abuse is potentially damaging (Radford and Hester, 2006). Therefore, lacking in social and emotional skills, and the development of their cognition as well. However, according to Freud’s psychoanalytical theory (1972) illustrates that social, emotional play and fantasy is strongly recommended for consistent development. Hence, play gives children the opportunity to gain mastery over their anxieties and conflicts, by allowing them to metaphorically reposition social situations so they feel that they are in control. But, if children are not given the opportunity to perform social, emotional and fantasy play this effects their development, risking them to become less in control and more exposed to conflicts and anxieties.
Efforts to Prevent Child Abuse and Neglect in Australia
Furthermore, it was revealed that an individual’s biopsychological weaknesses have effect and may create suicidal thoughts and Beck (1976) described this as ‘suicide mode’. Beck further reported that once this mode has begun, then the suicide mode is activated by cognitive, affective, motivational, and behavioural systems. As a result, the occurrence of suicidal thoughts and how severe it is can increase more and more over time. Additionally, Cicchetti (2001) speculated that abused preschoolers develop psychological maladjustment in and this includes lack of trust, empathy and emotional detachment. They are also likely to become aggressive and have severe withdrawal issues.
It has been brought out with the help of research that sexual abuse can bring about changes within stress response of the brain that can increase risk pertaining to suicidal thoughts along with behavior. It has been found that in the event of sexual abuse being perpetrated on the victim the victim loses the sense of self-esteem. The researchers have explained that the feeling of being shameful often propels the adolescent towards an act of self-destructiveness. The victims of sexual abuse experiences feelings of guilt along with self-blame. It has been found that in the event of victim incorporating responsibility in relation to the Act the individual develops a tendency of blaming the self. The factor of self-blame motivates self-destructiveness and the victims of sexual abuse have a deep desire and they want to punish themselves. The child gets a sense of powerlessness when he becomes the victim of sexual abuse in the event of the body space of the children being invaded. The suicide attempt acts as a cry of help who do not find any means of communicating psychological pain.
In summary, there has been an abundant amount of research supporting the link between neglect, and child abuse in adolescence leading to suicide in adulthood. The empirical evidence above identifies that if a child is psychologically damaged and lack the basic needs of development in early childhood it could further reach undesirable outcomes of anxiety, suicide and other detrimental behavioural distresses. The theories and literature portrayed a clear background on how each childhood experience can lead to an undesirable outcome in adulthood
In Australia there are many government and non-governmental associations that provide policies and interventions for child protection. It is fundamental to educate these children, so they identity what behaviours are acceptable and learn ways to avoid negative behaviours in order to strengthen, stabilise, improve their well-being and enhance their child development. Additionally, more focus should remain on suicide, child abuse and neglect. As a result, to help the general public become more aware of these social issues by advertising campaigns and raise awareness through the media such as television, billboards, and radio stations. Furthermore, it is suggested that parents, doctors, teachers, nurses that deal one onto one with children should be educated to learn how to detect early signs of abuse and neglect at early stages to avoid further deterioration in the child’s life.
Erikson’s Theory of Development Applied to Child Abuse and Neglect
The National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children 2009-2020 was formulated by Council of Australian government and it places importance on the interests of the children. It lays forward a co-operative document that helps in providing a national agenda in the manner in which Australia manages that of child protection issue. This framework wants to solve the differences that persist within the state jurisdiction.
Australia should be able to see the issue of protecting children from that of abuse to the promotion of safety of the children. It can however be suggested that application of a public health model can help in the process of delivering better outcome for the children. Priority should be placed on universal support in relation to the families. Intensive prevention intervention should be provided to the families that can help in providing additional assistance. The protection pertaining to children should be more than that of statutory child protection service and this can help in offering protection to the children from all kinds of abuses.
Conclusion
It can hence be concluded that neglect at the stage of early childhood and emotional abuse perpetrated on the adolescent can pave the way for suicide at the stage of adulthood. Australia is a signatory to that of United Nations Convention that can provide useful guidance to the states. Children belonging to the socially disadvantaged class have greater chances of committing suicide at the stage of early adulthood. The Council of the Australian Government was responsible for making the National Framework for Protecting Australia’s Children. A public health model can be applied that can help in the process of delivering better outcome in relation to the children. Child abuse and neglect are common problems worldwide and lead to suicide in adulthood, but there are many chances in a child’s early life to defeat or reduce its detrimental effects by speaking up, as a result more programs need to be put into place to help children speak up. But, they find difficulty and do not know what to do. Hence, this case study has provided an abundant amount of literature and theories on how early childhood events can lead to undesirable outcomes in adolescence, which further deteriorates in adulthood. Therefore, it is important to re duce the rate of child abuse and neglect at its early stages to avoid suicide in adolescence and adulthood. Further research should be conducted in order to help decrease the rate of child abuse, neglect and suicide.
Long-term Adverse Effects of Child Abuse and Neglect
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