In order to consider this, I contemplated Belik et al.'s study, "Relation Between Traumatic Events and Suicide Attempts in Canadian Military Personnel." In this article, the authors' purpose wanted to "determine whether exposure to particular types of traumatic events was associated with suicide attempts in a representatives ample of active military personnel" (Beilik et al. 93). In order to test the connection between certain traumatic events and suicide attempts, the authors drew data from the Canadian Community Health Survey, which asked respondents to mark whether they had been victims of 28 different traumatic events during their lives. One of these events was child abuse. The survey was representative of such variables including sex, reserve or non-reserve member, rank, and region (Belik et al. 95). Because the interviewers collected the data on a face-to-face basis in private areas, it is likely to be representative of what actually happened in the military members' lives. In order to measure the association between trauma and suicide attempts, the researchers used regression analysis and in concordance of Statistics Canada regulations (Beilik et al. 96). After completing this analysis, the researchers found that "sexual and other interpersonal traumas," which include child abuse, were associated with men and women's suicide attempts (Belik et al. 93). Thus, this piece of research answered my question regarding what types of psychological issues are faced by the survivors of child abuse, suggesting that they are at a risk for suicide. While this study had the best population and method of collecting data among the three that I examined, it does not completely answer my question, however, because child abuse is just one event in a category entitled "interpersonal trauma."

When viewing my research as a whole, I am stricken by its implications. These articles that child abuse is prevalent, and can lead to some serious trauma when children are both young...

Child abuse can lead to adolescent running away, which, in turn, leads to victimization and delinquency on behalf of the student. Further, it can lead to suicide attempts when the child is older. The most important way to end this cycle, then, is to end child abuse, but this research has also led me to conclude this is much easier said than done. For instance, mothers abuse children not because they want to, but because of other factors that push them over the edge, such as abuse by an intimate partner. What can be seen from viewing these articles together is, first, that child abuse must be tackled before it occurs in order to give the child the best chance of a normal life. Second, it is clear that the research regarding child abuse must be improved to use different types of samples and data that can give more accurate results. While these articles did answer some of my questions about child abuse, such as why it occurs and what happens to its victims, they did not answer all of my questions. For instance, they did not answer my question about culture and child abuse, and even considered certain behaviors child abuse that others would argue are cultural. Thus, in order to answer my research question, further work must be commissioned in this field.
Works Cited

Belik, S., Stein, M.B., Amudson, G. JG., and Sareen, J. "Relation Between Traumatic

Events and Suicide Attempts in Canadian Military Personnel." La Revue canadienne de psychiatre. 54.2. (2009): 93-104.

Kim, Min Jung. Tajima, Emiko A., Herrenkohn, Todd I., and Huang, Bu. "Early Child

Maltreatment, Runaway Youths, and Risk of Delinquency and Victimization in Adolescence: A Mediational Model." Social Work Research. 13.1 (2009): 19-28.

Taylor, Catherine A., Guteman, Neil B., Lee, Shawna J. "Intimate Partner Violence,

Maternal Stress, Nativity, and Risk for Maternal Maltreatment of Young Children."…