It is an unfortunate and tragic fact that for far too many children, the dangers of childhood do not just emanate from drugs and gangs and the other sources already mentioned. Numerous children from all communities throughout our country are also endangered on a daily basis through the abusive and neglectful actions and inactions of their own parents and other caregivers.
The parental maltreatment of children is a serious and widespread problem in and of itself.59 It is a problem that is infl uenced by the pre-viously mentioned problems, as many abusive and neglectful parents
are also substance abusers. It is also a problem that produces other problems, as children who are abused and neglected are the most like-ly to engage in self-dangerous behaviors, including becoming sexuallike-ly active very early, becoming substance abusers or gang members, as well as being more likely to abuse their own children when they be-come parents.
There are several forms of child maltreatment:
• Physical abuse includes physical acts that cause or could cause physical injury to the child.
• Sexual abuse is the involvement of the child in sexual activity to provide sexual gratifi cation or fi nancial benefi t to the parent or other adult, including contacts for sexual purposes, prostitution, pornography, or other sexually exploitative activities.
• Emotional abuse is defi ned as acts or omissions that cause or could cause conduct, cognitive, affective, or other mental disorders.
• Physical neglect includes abandonment, expulsion from the home, failure to seek remedial health care or delay in seeking care, inadequate supervision, disregard for hazards in the home, or inadequate food, clothing, or shelter.
• Emotional neglect includes inadequate nurturance or affection, permitting maladaptive behavior, and other inattention to emotional/development needs.
• Educational neglect includes permitting chronic truancy or other inattention to educational needs.
It is impossible to know for sure exactly how many American chil-dren are maltreated in these ways because most of these abuses occur in private. Those that become part of the public record by being re-ported to offi cial groups such as law enforcement and child protective service agencies are not the whole story, as there is the matter of un-equal reporting based on how exposed a particular family is to public scrutiny, with families who rely on public assistance and families liv-ing in poverty beliv-ing the most exposed. These are also the families who are most likely to become abusive and neglectful because the stresses that accompany a life in poverty make it especially diffi cult to be at-tentive and nurturing.
It is generally assumed by those professionals who work in the fi elds of child abuse and neglect that for every reported instance, there are at least three others that go unreported.60 Thus, for the 3 million cases that have been reported annually over the last few decades, an-other 9 million are probably not brought to public attention.
About two-thirds of the reported instances of child abuse receive of-fi cial investigation by law enforcement and/or child protective service professionals. In approximately half of those cases, it is determined that legally defi ned child abuse and/or neglect has taken place.61
By fi guring that there are 12 million reported and unreported in-stances of child maltreatment annually and that two-thirds are inves-tigated with half of those being confi rmed, it can be reasonably estimated that as many as 4 million children a year have been abused and/or neglected in the United States for the last 20 years or so. The vast majority of those children are abused and/or neglected by their parents, fathers and mothers alike.
What Are Some Consequences of Child Maltreatment?
According to various authorities, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there are numerous negative consequences to the children and to the community for these acts of violence toward children.62 Here are some of the negative outcomes that have been noted:
• Children who experience maltreatment are at increased risk for adverse health effects and behaviors as adults, including smoking, alcoholism, drug abuse, eating disorders, severe obesity, depression, suicide, sexual promiscuity, and certain chronic diseases.
• Maltreatment during infancy or early childhood can cause important regions of the brain to form improperly, leading to physical, mental, and emotional problems such as sleep
disturbances, panic disorder, and Attention-Defi cit/Hyperactivity Disorder.
• About 25 to 30% of infant victims with Shaken Baby Syndrome (SBS) die from their injuries.63 Nonfatal consequences of SBS include varying degrees of visual impairment (e.g., blindness), motor impairment (e.g., cerebral palsy), and cognitive
impairments.
• Victims of child maltreatment who were physically assaulted by caregivers are twice as likely to be physically assaulted as adults.
• Direct costs (judicial, law enforcement, and health system responses to child maltreatment) are estimated at $24 billion each year. The indirect costs (long-term economic consequences of child maltreatment) exceed an estimated $69 billion annually.64
Clearly, the problem of parental maltreatment of children is one of the most serious and costly problems that we as a society must face.
Our fellow parents who are the offenders often have backgrounds and live in situations that make their destructive behaviors more under-standable, and also provide cues as to what we can do to turn this unacceptable situation around.
Here are some of characteristics of an abusive parent that have be-come known through various research studies:
• Had an unhappy childhood
• Was mistreated or abused as a child by parent(s)
• Had parents who failed to provide an adequate model of good parenting
• Is socially isolated from family, friends, or neighbors; has few outside contacts of an intimate nature
• Has low self-esteem; perceives self as inadequate, unlovable, incompetent, or worthless
• Is emotionally immature; may be considered an adult child emotionally; has a dependent personality
• Sees little joy or pleasure in life; may be clinically depressed
• Holds distorted perceptions and unrealistic expectations of children
• Is adverse to the idea of spoiling his or her child; strongly believes in physical (corporal) punishment as a means of teaching children and helping them learn family patterns; practices an authoritarian childrearing style; displays minimal nurturing behaviors to child;
displays frequent outbursts of temper
• Has severely limited ability to empathize with others, particularly with his or her children; displays a general insensitivity to the needs of others.65
One or more of the 16 parenting guidelines in Chapter 4 relate to one or more of these types of characteristics. Thus, the array of guide-lines can be considered a blueprint for preventing child maltreatment.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what moves people to become par-ents in the fi rst place, what parpar-ents do for and on behalf of their chil-dren, what the research on parenting has to say about the better and poorer ways of raising children, and what infl uence processes parents use in raising children. Knowing how these infl uence processes work allows for a more educated approach to childrearing.
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