Maltreatment of the Child and Adolescent

Child and Adolescent Maltreatment

Child and Adolescent Maltreatment

Adverse childhood experiences (ACEs) are the violence, abuse, growing up in a family with mental health issues, or the influence of drug abuse that some children experience in today's world. Therefore, children in such an environment might develop toxic stress, which might change their brain development, thus affecting how their bodies respond to stress (Counseling, 2022). Also, prolonged exposure to such an environment inflect the child's body with stress hormones, which is dangerous to their health. It might increase their risk of health problems like heart disease, diabetes, or depression.

Even though unaddressed maltreatment in childhood can lead to devastating impacts as they develop, their brain has a great deal of plasticity, meaning they can heal faster. Therefore professional counselors working with children and adolescent teenagers should expose children to a healthy and happy environment. Since children's brains are still developing, they should have regular, responsive, and caring from adults to allow them to thrive well. It will help improve their lifelong wellness, resilience, and prospect for a successful future and help prevent the need for expensive interventions and treatments later in their lives (Gruhn & Compas, 2020).

Forms of child maltreatment

The Children's Defense Fund report depicted that millions of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds worldwide have been victims of child maltreatment. There are high chances if the society is not mobilized to curb such practices; there are high chances of more children being victims. Besides, there are numerous forms of child maltreatment, but the most common are physical abuse, sexual abuse, exploitation, and emotional abuse. Many of the children have been exposed to emotional abuse, while physical abuse is the most reported, and there have been minor cases of sexual abuse. Even though the threshold of defining corporal punishment is unclear, parents or guardians need to understand that intensive physical punishment might result in physical abuse of children. The physical abuse might include the intensive beating of the child and burning or even biting the child.

Conversely, psychological and emotional abuse might include humiliation and other acts that might scare the child (Gonzalez et al., 2021). Sexual abuse involves the child or adolescent victim in sexual activities that they do not fully comprehend or cannot give consent to. It might result in future psychological illness for the child when not addressed early.

The signs and symptoms of child maltreatment

Child maltreatment has potential side effects on the development, current state, and future educational performance of the child and emotional wellbeing of the child. Studies have shown that parents who experience high chronic stress levels are victims of child maltreatment. Children and adolescent victims of maltreatment may suffer depression, anxiety, and stress-related disorder, resulting in devastating effects on an individual (Gruhn & Compas, 2020). When left unaddressed for a long duration leaving the victim with a post-traumatic disorder, they are more likely to commit suicide.

Furthermore, children exposed to maltreatment might develop an eating disorder and self-injury behaviors that could be dangerous to their lives. Also, when it comes to educational performance, these children have been linked with lower academic achievement (Gruhn & Compas, 2020). Furthermore, some display non-academic behaviors, exposing them to discipline referrals and suspension, which might lead to expulsion from school. Thus, these adverse effects of child and adolescent maltreatment might affect their career and future lives.

The impact of school and health professionals on child maltreatment reporting

Considering the devastating impacts of maltreatment, the community and professionals must address the issue and equip children with strategies to help them overcome such occurrences. If one witnessed such an occurrence, one needs to report it. Therefore, because teachers spend more time with children, they must be trained and issued the right protocol to use when addressing maltreatment. Also, health professionals should provide social support to the children and their families; by doing so, they will mitigate the stress associated with child maltreatment (Gruhn & Compas, 2020). They can educate children on self-protection programs that might help them prevent maltreatment from occurring repeatedly. Then, creating public awareness to educate the community on the dangers of child and adolescent maltreatment.