Psychological Theories Of Child Abuse

Child abuse is a major problem in society, and the emotional and physical abuse of children can lead to many problems in their life. One important problem that an individual may face due to child abuse is personality disorders. Personality disorders are an important topic of discussion when thinking about child abuse. According to psychological research, much of an individual’s personality comes from their parents or whoever has raised them. In this case many children will learn the negative behavior that they observed in their parents, and this can lead to negative traits in their personality. In this paper the discussion of how that observational learning of personality from a parent or guardian who has mistreated their child will be analyzed. There are many forms of child abuse, and this paper will examine the risk factors of child abuse, specifically sexual and emotional abuse, and how that relates to personality disorders when the child reaches adulthood.

Physical Abuse First physical abuse and the correlation of how it affects adulthood behavior will be discussed. In a study done by David P. Farrington he examines the effect

A study discussed in Michael P. Hengartner’s article assesses the Big Five Personality Traits and its correlation to emotional and sexual abuse. The study found that individuals that have gone through any type of emotional neglect were likely to have a high percentage of neuroticism, low agreeableness, and are more likely to be introverted (Hengartner, M. 2015, p. 8). Next, the correlation of the Big Five Traits and sexual abuse were examined. The study found that neuroticism was related to sexual abuse, but it was not significantly influenced. Unlike emotional abuse, which had some relationship to all of the Big Five Traits, sexual abuse only affects an individual’s likelihood to be more neurotic, and none of the other traits were