CHILD ABUSE: TYPES, CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - ECONOMÍA - 2025

The child abuse is physical, psychological or sexual abuse of a child, occurring more frequently by parents, caregivers, teachers or close relatives. It is a frequent sociological phenomenon; a quarter of all adults report having suffered physical abuse as children.

The World Health Organization defines child abuse as any act of abuse or neglect of which children and adolescents under 18 years of age are objects, which harms their health or development.

Child abuse not only refers to physical abuse or sexual abuse, but also includes neglect and psychological abuse. Other actions, such as commercial exploitation, neglect or emotional indifference are also considered child abuse.

According to WHO data, a quarter of adults claim to have suffered physical abuse in childhood, while one in five women and one in thirteen men say they have been victims of sexual abuse in their childhood or adolescence.

Child abuse often occurs within the family or in an environment close to the minor. Parents, stepparents, close relatives, close friends or guardians are frequently responsible for the abuse suffered by the minor.

In all cases, there is an age asymmetry between the abuser and the victim, and also an abuse of power, which implies a dominant social role of the person causing the abuse.

Data and statistics

Some surprising information / facts about this type of violence according to WHO:

• One in 5 women and 1 in 13 men report having suffered sexual abuse in childhood.
• It is estimated that 41,000 children under the age of 15 die from homicide each year.
• Mental health abuse can contribute to heart disease, cancer, suicide, and sexually transmitted infections.

According to UNICEF:

• In countries like Tanzania, Kenya or Zimbabwe, 1 in 3 girls and 1 in 6 boys has suffered some form of sexual abuse.
• In more developed countries like the United States, almost 25% of adolescents and 10% of boys have suffered some type of sexual incident, abuse, robbery or assault.
• 6 out of 10 children in the world between the ages of 2 and 14 suffer physical abuse on a daily basis.
• Every 5 minutes a child dies from violence.
• Currently in many countries physical punishment is normal, as is the case in Australia, where 1 in 10 families advocate punishing their children with canes, sticks or belts.
• In the world, the number of married minors rises to 14 million per year, which implies that 39,000 girls get married every day.
• In Somalia, 45% of minors are forced to marry before the age of 18, and more than 98% have been subjected to genital mutilation, one of the strongest and cruellest attacks that exists.
• Clitoral mutilation to eliminate the sensation of pleasure is practiced in 29 countries and has already been performed on approximately 140 million girls, a figure that rises to 2 million each year.

Types of child abuse

-Physical abuse

It occurs when physical force is used to cause harm to the minor. It includes all intentional actions that cause physical harm to the child: bumps, burns, scratches, pricks, violent shaking, etc.

The beaten child

Children who are beaten or physically abused have marks, bruises, and bruises over large areas of their bodies, and wounds at different stages of healing.

They also frequently present multiple fractures produced on different dates, lesions in the nervous system or brain trauma that show severe physical abuse and repeated over time.

The agitated infant (shaken baby syndrome)

Violent shaking is a common form of abuse in very young children: most are less than nine months old.

These jerks can lead to bleeding in the brain, retina, and small “splinter” fractures in the child's arm and leg joints, caused by rapid shaking.

Shaking can cause long-term consequences, such as delayed psychomotor development, cerebral palsy, blindness, or even death.

Neglect or abandonment

Neglect happens when the family member does not care for the child properly. It is a lack of responsibility that leads to the omission of the basic care of the child or adolescent, whose fundamental needs are not covered.

To give you some concrete examples, there is negligence when the minor is not monitored, is not sent to school, is not fed properly, is not dressed properly or is not taken to medical check-ups or consultations, etc.

-Psychological abuse

It is a set of behaviors and attitudes that last over time and that cause a lot of damage to the mood and self-esteem of children or adolescents.

Psychological abuse includes yelling, insults, indifference, contempt, humiliation, confinement, threats, or any type of hostility expressed in verbal form.

If this type of abuse occurs in the first years of the child's life, it is possible that the child does not develop attachment and in the future that child will feel excluded from the family and social environment.

In this way, psychological abuse negatively influences their self-esteem and social skills.

-Sexual abuse

Sexual abuse occurs when a child or adolescent under 18 years of age maintains sexual contact with an adult or another minor, when he is not evolutionarily prepared to do so and when this situation occurs in a relationship of submission, abuse of power and authority over the victim.

Sexual abuse also includes sexual exploitation, rape, groping, requests with sexual connotations even if there is no physical contact, masturbation in the presence of a child or the exposure of genital organs, among others.

In these cases, it happens many times that children are taken to see the doctor for physical or behavioral problems that, when investigated further, turn out to be the consequences of sexual abuse.

Risk factor's

Although child abuse can happen in any setting, you should know that there are some risk factors that increase the chances that a child or adolescent will suffer abuse.

For example, children under the age of four and teens are at higher risk. The same thing happens with children who were unwanted, who do not meet the expectations of their parents, who have a physical or mental disability or who cry a lot.

Adult guardians who find it difficult to bond with their children, who were abused themselves in their childhood, or who have unrealistic expectations regarding their children's development are at higher risk of being abusers.

In addition, financial difficulties at home and the use of alcohol or drug dependence can also be risk factors.

Finally, in families living in situations of domestic violence, who suffer isolation in their community or who lack the support of their own relatives to take care of their children, there is also a greater risk of child abuse.

Causes

The causes of child abuse are multifactorial.

As you have already read in the previous section, when adults have suffered abuse in their childhood, when there are violent situations at home, low self-esteem, physical or mental disorders in parents or children, substance abuse or unwanted children, there is a greater risk of minors being abused.

The lack of compensatory elements for these risk factors, such as personal satisfaction, access to therapies, attachment to children, social support and a good economic situation also cause higher risk situations.

Consequences

Surely you already sense it: in addition to the immediate physical consequences that child abuse can cause, these situations of violence also cause emotional, behavioral and social disorders.

The importance and severity of the impact depends on:

• The frequency of abuse and its intensity and its prolongation over time.
• The characteristics of the child (age, temperament, susceptibility, social skills, etc.).
• The presence or absence of physical violence.
• The relationship that the child has with his aggressor.
• The support that the child receives from his family.
• Access to medical, psychological and social care.

The consequences can be:

• When abuse occurs in young children, under the age of three, attachment is likely not to develop and therefore their social skills and self-esteem will be damaged. In these cases, it is common to see the child have nightmares, sleep disorders, changes in eating habits, delays in their psychomotor development or loss of toilet training.
• As they grow up, abused children are likely to have a difficult time understanding, grading, and regulating their emotions and impulses.

They often lack positive beliefs about themselves and the world around them. In general, they have less ability to recognize or react to the discomfort of others.

They tend to interpret the intentions of their peers or teachers as more hostile than they really are.

This is mainly due to the continuous emotional contradictions to which they are subjected, since a person who is supposed to take care of them and who they love, actually mistreats them.

• When abuse occurs in older children or adolescents, they tend to run away from home, attack themselves and generally have poor academic performance.
• Social isolation, juvenile delinquency, substance abuse, self-rejection, general fear, or the appearance of feelings of shame or guilt, or illnesses such as depression or dissociative identity disorder are also common.
• Upon reaching adulthood, people who were abused in childhood often become abusers of their children themselves.
• Beyond psychological disorders, research in the United States has shown that physical punishment can cause changes in the brain. In this way, children who are beaten or physically abused from young to over five years of age may have a lower IQ, compared to children who do not suffer this type of violence, because they have fewer gray matter in the prefrontal area of ​​the brain.

Prevention

In general, the prevention of child abuse, from a global point of view, is the task of governments, which must establish programs to help, educate and support families.

This can be achieved, for example, by forming support groups that inform and educate parents so that they are better able to raise their children through positive strategies.

Also through policies that help prevent unwanted pregnancies or by sensitizing and training professionals who care for minors, such as teachers or pediatricians, for the early detection of these types of situations.

In some states, pediatricians and other health care professionals are required by law to report known or suspected cases of child abuse.

But don't worry, even if you're not a pediatrician or a social worker, you too can do things to help avoid these aberrant situations.

For example, if you have children, teach them to know their body and to differentiate normal contact with another person from immodest contact. Simply tell him that no one has to touch his genitals without him not wanting to.

In this way, you will be helping to prevent sexual abuse. Explain to your children that they should say NO when they don't like a situation or a proposal and that if someone wants to force them to do something unpleasant, they should immediately tell a trusted adult.

In case it were of your interest, I would add the protocol of action against child abuse carried out by the Ministry of Labor and Social Affairs.

What to do if you know of a situation of child abuse?

If you know of a case of child abuse or suspect it, what you should do is contact a child protection service that is available in your city, region or state.

If you believe that the physical abuse or neglect is putting the child's life in immediate danger, do not hesitate to call the police or emergency services.

Unfortunately, child abuse will not go away if you look the other way.

And what is worse, if it is not prevented in time, it is a problem that is perpetuated. As you have probably already read above, adults who have suffered abuse in their childhood run the risk of becoming abusers or violent people.

Therefore, if you know or suspect a case of child abuse, you should report it to the corresponding authorities, not only so that they protect that child, but also so that the family is taught how to function properly, without violence.

And what experiences do you have with child abuse?