Child abuse

Child abuse includes the physical or mental injury, sexual abuse, negligent treatment, or mistreatment of children under the age of 18 by adults entrusted with their care. Accurate statistics are difficult to compile, since many incidents of child abuse go unreported. In 1999 about 3 million cases of child abuse were reported. After investigation, an estimated 826,000 children were confirmed as victims of actual abuse or neglect situations.

Child abuse is viewed as a social problem resulting from a variety of causes. Many abusive parents were themselves mistreated as children, suggesting that these parents may have learned an inappropriate way of caring for children. Such parents tend to use the harsh physical discipline that they saw their own parents using. Many abusive parents have little patience with their children. Often they have unrealistic expectations for them.

Overburdened and stressed parents are more likely to abuse their children. Low-birthweight infants and those children who are hyperactive or mentally or physically disadvantaged experience a higher than normal incidence of abuse. One reason for this higher incidence may be that such children are less responsive and more difficult to care for, thus making greater demands on and providing fewer rewards for the parents. Social-cultural stresses such as unemployment and lack of contact with family, friends, and groups in the community are other factors associated with child abuse.

The most effective way of stopping child abuse is to prevent future incidents. Parent education for abusive parents allows them to learn new ways of dealing with their children. By providing information about resources and a support system for these families, communities may reduce the incidence of child abuse.

Abuse has many developmental effects for its victims. It may rob children of their childhood and create a loss of trust and feelings of guilt, which in turn may lead to antisocial behavior, depression, identity confusion, loss of self-esteem, and other emotional problems. Every state and most counties have social services agencies that provide protective services to children. They have legal authority to investigate reported incidents of child abuse.

Social Development

Socialization is the process of learning the rules of behavior in the culture where you live. To live with other people, children must learn what behavior is acceptable and unacceptable.

One part of socialization is learning when to apply the rules and when to bend them. A second part is gaining an identity. As children learn the society's values, they gain an identity as an individual member of a society, a member of different social categories, and a member of a family. A third part of socialization is learning to live with other people and with yourself. Children must learn that other people have rights and that they have limitations. For example, a child must learn that it is not acceptable to take another child's toy. Or, a child may discover that she cannot hit a baseball on the first try.

Sigmund Freud believed that all children are born with powerful sexual and aggressive urges. In learning to control these impulses, children gain a sense of right and wrong. Freud identified five stages of development. in the oral stage, infants associate erotic pleasure with the mouth, sucking at their mother's breast. In the anal stage, children associate erotic pleasure with the elimination process. The phallic stage occurs when children begin to associate sexual pleasure with their genitals. During the phallic stage, children adopt the values and principles of the same-sex parent. This is called identification. At about age 5 or 6, children enter a latency stage. Sexual desires are pushed to the background, and children explore the world and learn new skills. This process of redirecting sexual impulses into learning tasks is called sublimation.

Children reach the genital stage in adolescence. In this stage, they get as much satisfaction from giving pleasure as receiving it. Freud believed that personality development is complete as we enter adolescence.

Erik Erikson believed that a child's need for social approval is just as important as sexual urges. Unlike Freud, he saw development as a lifelong, interactive process among people. How we develop depends on how other people respond to our efforts. For example, a 1-year-old boy is delighted with his new ability to walk. Just learning this new skill gives him self-esteem. As he walks around exploring, however, he gets into things. If the adults around him praise his efforts, he will develop a sense of independence. If they punish him for being a nuisance, he may feel his desire for independence is bad.

Freud and Erikson stress the emotional part of social development. Other psychologists believe social development is simply a matter of conditioning and imitation. Children receive rewards for doing what others do. They begin to copy older children and adults to gain more rewards.

Another theory is the cognitive-developmental approach. Cognitive means thinking. These psychologists believe that social development is the result of the child trying to make sense out of his experiences with the world around him. For example, when children play games, they make up rules. Much of their play involves role taking. They try on adult roles such as mother or teacher. This allows them to experience different points of view.

Lawrence Kohlberg identified six stages of moral development. In Stage 1, children are egocentric and consider no other points of view. In Stage 2, they evaluate acts in terms of consequences. They do not consider whether actions are right or wrong. In Stage 3, children want social approval so they apply other people's rules rigidly. In Stage 4, children see laws as moral rules to be obeyed. In Stage 5, people are concerned with whether a law is fair and just. Stage 6 involves accepting ethical principles as more important than any written law.