Effects of Childhood Sexual Abuse in Adulthood Child abuse is a serious issue in today's society. Many people have been victims of child abuse. There are three forms of child abuse: physical, emotional, and sexual. Many researchers believe that sexual abuse is the most detremental of the three. A middle-aged adult who is feeling depressed will probably not relate it back to his childhood, but maybe he should.
Younger children may have sleep difficulties, loss of appetite, and generalized fearfulness and anxiety. Abused girls often enter into unhealthy relationships and many become promiscuous. Additionally, if the abuse occurred in middle childhood, ages 6-12, the victim may develop false memories that the abuse ever occurred; be in denial; or be unaware that the type of experience was determined to be sexual abuse. According to Mc... ... middle of paper ... ...munities are less than in the larger communities so it is best when in practice to have a list of available resources ready for the needs of the clients. Clients are going to have trust issues and some of the family members could have trust issues especially if the abuser is a trusted family member.
Children are afraid to break the silence about their sexual abuse and report it because of the reaction from parents, family members, or the fear of breaking up the family. Children keep quiet about their sexual abuse because of their involvement and fear of being rejected by others. Children may also keep silent due to the fear of their perpetrator or their perpetrator has trained the child to believe it was their fault. Many children who have never received the proper help will suffer with long lasting effects from sexual abuse. It is very important to counsel children who have been sexually abused at a young age.
Sexual abuse occurs when a person forces, tricks, or threatens children to have sexual contact. These acts of child abuse could prevent children from living a normal adulthood. In order to deal with such a traumatic childhood, adults abused as children should rid themselves of such burdensome, painful memories. Adults abused as children need to confront the abuse they have experienced. To face and admit that they have been abused, adults should no longer live in denial.
According to Susanne Babbel’s article “The Lingering Trauma of Child Abuse”, “For children that have suffered from abuse, it can be complex getting to the root of childhood trauma to alleviate later symptoms as adults”. Physical abuse can lead to sexual abuse in most cases. In several sexual abuse cases, children are physically abused to allow the abuser to sexually abuse the
Childhood sexual abuse has many definitions, but Collin-Vézina, Daigneault, and Hébert (2013) define it “as any sexual activity perpetrated against a minor by threat, force, intimidation, or manipulation” (p. 7). Despite the form of sexual abuse, children are not developmentally prepared physically or emotionally to see, hear or experience this type of act. Although adults view childhood sexual abuse as a clear violation of boundaries, children may not completely believe it is the perpetrators fault. Children can have a multitude of beliefs such as they deserve the abuse, the abuse it their fault, and that abuse is a way that the perpetrator shows love. Unfortunately, many children do not talk about the abuse, so parents and guardians need to be aware of the warning signs that sexual abuse is possibly occurring.
According to Herrenkohl, “Research shows that various forms of early adversity, including child abuse and child neglect (child maltreatment), can carry long-term developmental consequences for children (Herrenkohl)”. Some adults do not understand the needs of their children. Some parents’ growing up may not had any good care as a child, and may think it is okay to treat their kids the same way. The effects of child neglect are health and physical effect, social and behavioral effect, emotional and psychological effect, intellectual and cognitive effect, and the child adulthood. Children are at an increased risk for emotional behavioral problems regardless if they were directly abused or not (Foundation).
Finally, the effects of childhood sexual abuse include sleeping disorders, co-dependency, and may continue to be abused by others even after they leave an abusive environment (Lipovsky & Hanson, 2007). The encounter of child sexual abuse differs between individuals. The seriousness, occurrence, and age of the child, relationship between the child and the offender, degree of support, admission by the perpetrator, active family life, and exact nature of the abuse all affect the type and severity of effects seen in the child victim. It is imperative to mention that no one symptom outline is exclusively to children who have been sexually abused. Furthermore, the majority of ch... ... middle of paper ... ..., H., Taylor, N., & Prentice, K. (2014).
When a child is sexually abused, or physically abused, there are visual effects on the person. Everyone knows the signs of a sexually abused victim but, most people do not recognize or even know the effects of emotional abuse. Emotional abuse is the hidden scars; the scars that people do not see that can cause a lifetime of abuse. These invisible scars can affect a person’s development from childhood through adolescence to adulthood, as an individual struggles to accept their self. Emotional abuse negatively impacts an individual’s self-esteem, which in turn can cause depression and substance abuse later in adulthood.
Child abuse has been found to have bad effects on the lives of the abused victims. Psychology shows that children who are physically abused tend to develop some aggressive behaviors towards themselves and their surroundings, and children who suffer from emotional abuse tend to build unhealthy relationship in their adulthood. Many children grow up with no proper care from parents and this can make them dangerous to themselves and the society. The purpose of this essay is to explain the problems the abused victims are faced with and how child maltreatment can be prevented. Research performed by some authors has also shown that children who are abused have the tendency of becoming abusive parents themselves.