What is underage trauma?
Underage trauma refers to trauma that was experienced by an individual under the age of 18 years old. The term “trauma” is defined as “an emotional response to a terrible event like an accident, rape, or natural disaster” and is experienced “immediately after the event (American Psychological Association, 2014, par 1). Although there are many types of trauma I will only be discussing the following: child maltreatment and neglect, bullying, rape/sexual assault, and teen dating violence since these types are considered victims since the trauma was outside their control and the trauma was perpetrated by someone the child or youth knew or was a stranger to him or her.
Statistics of underage trauma
Some statistics on child
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They include
- having parents who are young, single, poor, less education, and unemployed
- parents who show greater irritation and annoyance in response to their children’s moods and behavior, that they are less supportive, affectionate, playful and responsive to their children, and that they are more controlling and hostile
- household overcrowding increases the risk of child abuse (Runyan, Wattam, Ikeda, Hassan, & Ramiro, 2002)
There are bullying risk factors and warning signs. Valarie Juntunen (2013) discussed such factors they include being perceived as different from their peers, are perceived as weak or unable to defend themselves, are depressed, anxious, or have low self-esteem, are less popular than others and have few friends, and children who do not get along with others (p. 106). Juntunen does admit that though the above mentioned are risk factors that does not mean that these children will be bullied (2013). Warning signs that a child is being bullied include there is a decreased in his or her academic achievement, he or she skips or missed school, he or she has complaints about his or her health, signs of depression and anxiety, increase in feelings of sadness and loneliness (Juntenen,
For example physical, verbal, and cyber. You can find a bunch of articles, books, and movies out there that tell cases of bullying. Some are pretty well known around and majority are never heard of. The story of Amanda Todd is a very famous story that involves bullying. In Amanda Todd’s story she goes through depression from all the bullying and harassment that she went through and eventually committed suicide. Committing suicide is a very common variable when it comes to bullying. People think that death is an easy way out of their problems, and it’s not. There are cases when the person who is being bullied has had enough where they do the opposite of suicide and commit murder. In this case that person will usually commit mass murder through a school shooting. Bullying is a very common thing that has been happening for a long time. A famous event was the Columbine shooting of April 20th,1999 when it was theorized that two boys shot down the school due to bullying. Even famous people have admitted to being bullied. To name a few there are Lady Gaga, Megan Fox, Rihanna, Tom Cruise, and the president himself Barack
Childhood Trauma is defined as “The experience of an event by a child that is emotionally painful or distressful, which often results in lasting mental and physical effects.” (The National Institute of Mental Health). Childhood trauma is an epidemic that seems to be running its way throughout the world. Childhood trauma is a worldwide problem that can affect anyone and everyone. People tend to just try and help the problems that occur due to the childhood trauma, but not the problem itself. Many of these issues will also follow the child into their adult years and will cause negative effects. This paper will discuss the negative outcomes for a child who suffers from childhood trauma, and the negative outcomes that can follow them into adulthood.
The pressure of living in an overcrowded property can put a massive strain on relationships, and can at times lead to domestic violence towards partners and children. (Stanley etal., 2010).
Childhood abuse, neglect, and trauma are a worldwide issue, affecting more than 800,000 children just in the United States. Childhood abuse has been defined as any treatment that is willfully or unreasonably done to a child that causes physical injury, emotional injury, or any injury to the health and wellbeing of the child. The effects of maltreatment can last long into adulthood, and can include anxiety, depression, dissociation, intrusive thoughts, impulsivity, and later on the development of posttraumatic stress disorder. Child maltreatment can have many forms, including trauma, either viewing or involved in, sexual abuse, prenatal alcohol syndrome, moral jeopardy, and neglect. According to the U.S. DHHS Children’s Bureau, 906,000 cases of child maltreatment were validated, approximately 60% were neglected, 20% were physically abused, 10% were sexually abused, and 5% were emotionally abused (Hyter, 2007). Although the number of cases are large, the United Nations determined in 2001, that due to those who are afraid to report, or are unaware of the abuse, orders a study to determine worldwide global issue.
A child is bullied every seven seconds, and many do not report it. Often bullying activities are not reported because the victim may feel embarrassed, afraid the bullying may become worst or doubt they will receive help. Unfortunately, children who are bullied are more likely to suffer physical and emotional problems including depression, social withdrawal and are at risk of catastrophic behaviors.
Trauma is the fourth leading cause of death overall for all ages in the United States. Trauma is
Child abuse is defined as the physical, sexual or emotional maltreatment or neglect of a child or children. Nowadays, you hear about numerous child abuses every year and every year the statists grow larger. Tens of thousands of children each year are traumatized by physical, sexual, and emotional abusers or by caregivers who neglect them, making child abuse as common as it is shocking. Most people cannot imagine what would make adults use violence against a child, and the worse the behavior is, the more unimaginable it seems. People do not realize the different forms of abuse children may receive. This list includes physical, mental, emotional, neglect, and sexual abuse. The psychological result of each abused child is often the same: deep emotional scars and a feeling of worthlessness.
Trauma relates to a type of damage to the mind that comes from a severely distressing event. A traumatic event relates to an experience or repeating events that overwhelmingly precipitated in weeks, months, or decades as one tries to cope with the current situations that can cause negative consequences. People’s general reaction to these events includes intense fear, helplessness or horror. When children experience trauma, they show disorganized or agitative behavior. In addition, the trigger of traumas includes some of the following, harassment, embarrassment, abandonment, abusive relationships, rejection, co-dependence, and many others. Long-term exposure to these events, homelessness, and mild abuse general psychological
Everyone has been bullied or encountered someone being bullied at some point of their life. Whether it would be physically or verbally both can be exceedingly traumatizing and can have a long-term psychological influence on children’s development. Majority people may define bullying in a more physical term; nevertheless that’s not always the case. The act of bullying can occur in several ways and in reality affect the individual in the same way. Bullying is generally defined as repeated, negative, and harmful actions focused at target throughout a course of time, exhibiting a sense of power difference between the bully and the victim (Olweus, 1993; Limber & Mihalic, 1999 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). A survey was conducted in the United States estimating that over six million children, about 30% in grade six through ten have experienced frequent bullying in a school environment (Nansel, 2001 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005). Many people might debate that bullying is something that every child goes through and is simply a part of growing up, although there are several damaging consequences that happens to the child’s brain. Bullying causes the child to feel upset, isolated, frightened, anxious, and depressed. They feel like they reason they are being picked on is because there is something wrong with them and may even lose their confidence feel unsafe going to school (Frenette, 2013 as cited from Douglas J. Boyle, 2005) Anthropologically, sociologically, or psychologically, bullying can be analyzed through different perspectives and several questions can be asked based on the topic:
Bullying is a major problem and needs to be prevented. A bully is defined as aggressive behavior or to harm a person repeatedly overtime. School bullying can start anytime from elementary to high school. Over 5.7 teens in the United States are involved in school bullying(about.com). Boys tend to be more physically bullied as girls are more prone to being bullied verbally. According to the National Conference of State Legislature, boys who are often bullied can be five times as likely to be more or severely depressed and four times more likely to be suicidal. Girls are three times more likely to be severely depressed and eight times more likely to be suicidal. Some children are afraid to go to school, which can lead to poor grades or lack of concentration. It is hard for students to focus at school when they are worried about their bully. Bullying can make school a place of fear and can lead to school violence.
Bullying is a serious issue and has an adverse effect that could lead to depression, anxiety, and worse suicide. To become a bully takes a long process, with the help from parents, schools, communities, and social media, bullies and bullying can be prevented.
To understand how to prevent child sexual abuse, one must begin by understanding what child sex abuse is. When a perpetrator intentionally harms a child physically, psychologically, sexually, or by acts of neglect, this crime is known as child abuse. Child sex abuse consists of any sexual activity that includes a minor. A child cannot consent to any form of sexual activity. More importantly, when a perpetrator engages with a child this way, they are committing a crime that can have lasting effects on the victim for years. Moreover, child sexual abuse does not need to include physical contact between a perpetrator and child, some forms include but not limited to; fondling, intercourse, sex trafficking, exposing oneself to a minor, masturbation
Child abuse is a very serious problem that continues to happen all over the world. The Federal Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, defines child abuse as a failure to act as a parent or caregiver which results in physical/emotional harm, sexual abuse, and in some cases death. There are many different types of child abuse such as emotional, physical, neglect, and sexual. With each type of abuse there are warning signs you can spot before it is too late. When a child is abused there is a huge possibility that it can cause them to have many long term effects.
The lack of parental attention causes a feeling of insecurity leading someone to acquit bullying. Unfortunately, adult role moles, parents, teachers, coaches, can build up tension in a student to generate them to bully. Students that are neglected, have divorced parents, or are around the influence of drugs/alcohol are more controlling and impulsive by nature. Those who have younger siblings are more suitable to bully in order to feel empowered. When children have an inadequate amount of supervision from a parent, they suppose they can get away with anything, like bullying. Bullying is more known in schools due to a student trying to fit in, and act “cool” in front of his or her classmates. A lot of people believe that in order to acknowledge power and popularity, you need to push the people around you to gain control. However, some children bully others because they used to once be a victim of bullying. Bullying can also arise from peer pressure through manipulation. On the other hand, bullies do not need a reason to hurt another, they seek fragile targets, and intensely desire attention. Also, bullies are not aware of their wrong behavior, and how gruesome it makes a person
A study was done by David G. Gil, author of Violence Against Children: Physical Child Abuse in the United States and Journal of Marriage and Family, conducted a study about the types of child that was abused. His findings indicated that children of all ages are abused. He also found that abused children are more likely to come from single-parent homes or from large families. Income, occupation, and education are all factors that indicate the higher rates of abuse. Most children in his sample were abused by their mothers, and fewer than half the abused children in his sample were living with their bi...