Stop Emotional Child Abuse

Today is the day that bloggers unite in order to educate others in various forms of abuse in order to prevent them from happening. (Refer to this post to see what this is about.)

My topic is on "emotional child abuse". I have researched this topic, and wrote up a brief overview about what it is and what it looks like:




First off, what is child abuse?

"Child abuse consists of any act, or failure to act, that endangers a child's physical or emotional health and development. Someone is abusive if he or she fails to nurture the child, physically injures the child, or relates sexually to the child." ¹

As the years go by, there has been more and more child abuse (or maltreatment). In 1998, in Canada, there were 135,500 child abuse investigations; about half of these investigations confirmed that the child was being abused.² In 2003, there were 235,315 investigations; about 114, 607 (49%) were confirmed. Of these confirmed investigations, 16,020 investigations concerned emotional child abuse.³

Emotional Child Abuse

"Emotional child abuse involves acts or omissions that cause or could cause serious behavioural, cognitive, emotional, or mental disorders." ⁴ Emotional child abuse can not only come from parents, guardians, and/or caregivers, but it can also come from bullies, other family members, and even teachers. ¹

Emotional child abuse can be the most destructive out of all the other types of child abuse. Unlike physical abuse, emotional abuse is not something you can easily see, and therefore make it all the more difficult to identify and stop. Continuous emotional abuse can have a longer-lasting psychiatric effect than physical or sexual abuse.¹ It can leave hidden scars that manifests itself in the future in various ways: "Insecurity, poor self-esteem, destructive behavior, angry acts (such as fire setting or cruelty to animals), withdrawal, poor development of basic skills, alcohol or drug abuse, suicide and difficulty forming relationships...." ⁵

Here are some examples of emotional child abuse: ^1,5,6

• Belittling or shaming
• Child exploitation
• Child abduction
• Corrupting
• Exposure to violence
• Extreme punishment
• Habitual blaming
• Harassment
• Ignoring or rejecting
• Inappropriate control
• Intimidation
• Lack of affection and warmth
  

(If you're not sure what some of these are or wonder how it affects children, please feel free to ask me questions by leaving a comment or emailing me.)

There are many reasons why someone would emotionally abuse a child. I believe that the main problem is that the one abusing the child is not even aware that s/he is maltreating a child, or the one whose child is being abused is not aware that it is happening. This is why it's important that people are made aware of what emotional child abuse is and what it looks like. People need to be aware so they can stop either themselves and/or others from emotionally abusing a child.

We need to protect the children of today so they can live a better tomorrow. So, take action today to stop emotional child abuse.

And remember: Every little bit helps. It may not make a difference to everyone, but it will make a difference to someone.

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For more information on child abuse, visit the sources I used (or simply google "emotional child abuse"). This site gives plenty of information on the many forms of child abuse and what you can do to help stop child abuse.

If you wish to know more about other forms of abuse, visit Blog Catalog here, and scan through what others have said about abuse in their blogs.

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1 "Child Abuse" (Helpguide.org)
2 "Neglect, emotional abuse grounds for most child welfare cases" by Megan Easton (University of Toronto)
3 "Canadian Incidence Study of Reported Child Abuse and Neglect – 2003" (Canadian Children’s Rights Council)
4 "Child Abuse" (Canadian Children’s Rights Council)
5 "Emotional Abuse" (National Exchange Club Foundation)
6 "Emotional Abuse" (Findcounselling.com)

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